Lachnocaulon

Scientific name

Lachnocaulon Kunth

Common names

bog buttons, hairy pipewort, hat pins

Family

Eriocaulaceae

Similar genera

Eriocaulon Lachnanthes, Mesanthemum, Syngonanthus, Xyris

Native distribution

southeastern United States to Texas, Cuba

Species cultivated

cultivated for aquatic garden ponds; not frequently available commercially

Lachnocaulon spp.

L. anceps (Walter) Morong

L. minus (Chapm.) Small

Adventive distribution

information not available

Weed status

not weedy

Habit

emergentemergent:
(adj) (syn. emersed) with parts raised out of the water; extending up out of the water
wetland herb

Brief description

Small to medium herb in dense rosetterosette:
(n) a radiating cluster of leaves, usually close to the ground at the base of a plant
tufts. Roots branched, dark, slender, fibrous. Leaves in crowded spiral clusters at base; leaf bladeblade:
(n) (syn. lamina) the flat, expanded part of a leaf, frond, or petal (excluding, e.g., the petiole)
linear, narrow, much shorter than scapesscape:
(n) a leafless flowering stalk arising from ground level in acaulescent plants
; apexapex:
(n) the point farthest from the point of attachment; the tip (often pointed)
acuteacute:
(adj) tapering to a sharp, pointed apex with more or less straight sides; broader than acuminate; forming an angle of less than 90 degrees
; base straight. Inflorescenceinflorescence:
(n) the arrangement of flowers on the floral axis
axillary, of one or more scapose heads; scapescape:
(n) a leafless flowering stalk arising from ground level in acaulescent plants
slender, glabrousglabrous:
(adj) without hairs or scales
or hairy; heads ovoidovoid:
(adj) egg-shaped in three dimensions
to globoseglobose:
(adj) spherical or nearly so
or short-cylindric; involucral bracts broad, obscured by inflorescenceinflorescence:
(n) the arrangement of flowers on the floral axis
; receptaclereceptacle:
(n) the portion of the pedicel on which the flowers are borne, or in the Asteraceae, the portion of the peduncule upon which the florets of the head are borne
densely pale-pilose. Flowers 2-3 merousmerous:
suffix indicating the number of parts in a whorl
; sepals 3, scariousscarious:
(adj) dry, thin, membranous, non-green, more or less translucent
, apexapex:
(n) the point farthest from the point of attachment; the tip (often pointed)
with club-shaped hairs, surface glabrousglabrous:
(adj) without hairs or scales
or sparsely hairy; petals absent or reduced to small scales or hairs; white, gray to brown.

Natural habitat

wetlands; moist to wet sand and peat at pond edges, seeps, bogs, ditchbanks, streambanks and low places in pine savanna

Additional comments

A genus of less than 10 species.