Family: Acoraceae — sweet flag family
Sweetflags are perennial wetland plants that grow from creeping rhizomes. The plants produce long, narrow leaves, with no stalks, that stand upright, with veins running parallel along the length of the leaf. The tiny flowers, which have both pollen-bearing and ovule-bearing parts, grow in a long cluster called a spadix, which protrudes from a specialized leaf and resembles a small ear of corn. The flowers have six stamens with kidney-shaped anthers, and six small petal-like sepals. The small fruits are berries in the shape of an upside-down pyramid, attached to the spadix at the narrow end and contain 1-3 seeds. Only one of our two species produces viable seeds. The single genus in this family was formerly considered to belong in the Araceae.
This family’s genera in New England
Visit this family in the Dichotomous Key