Erect, often freely branched perennial 4-12 dm from a cluster of fleshy-fibrous roots; lvs alternate, lanceolate or lance-linear, acute or acuminate, 5-10 cm, tapering to the sessile or subpetiolar base; pedicels 3-5 mm, with 2 lanceolate bracteoles near the top; fls 4-merous; pet about equaling the sep; stamens 4; fr 5-6 mm, glabrous or hairy, nearly cubic, with rounded base, slightly wing-angled, opening by a terminal pore, and eventually loculicidal; pedicels to about as long as the fr; 2n=16. Swamps and wet soil; Mass. and s. Ont. to Io. and s. Neb., s. to Fla. and Tex. July, Aug. Ozarkian plants, extending e. to s. Ind., tend to be evidently short-hairy, and have been distinguished from the more eastern or northern, essentially glabrous plants, as var. pubescens E. J. Palmer & Steyerm.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

In wet places along streams, about lakes, ponds, sloughs, and in wet woodland, fallow fields, and roadside ditches. Throughout the state but usually only a specimen or two at a place.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 3

Wetland Indicator Status: OBL