Greenfruit Bur-reed

Sparganium acaule

Found in bogs, stream margins. FloraQuest, phone app (app page) What its natural habitat tells you

Good

Native to Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?

Profile 71%

Light: Partial shade, Full sun
Soil moisture: Wet to standing water

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Rare or protected plant. Specialist conservation planting; excluded from routine garden suggestions. Plant caution source

Hidden from default planting suggestions. Wildlife value and native status remain unchanged.

At a glance

Bloom: May to September

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Not yet recorded · Height · Spread · Life cycle · Leaves

Height: NC species account not read yet.

Spread, life cycle and leaves: no source found yet.

This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.

Recorded in 7 Virginia counties.

Natural habitats

Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement.

Named place / source context. Shown: Watauga Falls, North Carolina, a neighboring state.Watauga Falls, Illustrator/engraver not confidently attributed; reproduced in Zeigler and Grosscup, The Heart of the Alleghanies (1883), 1883. Public domain. Source record.

Habitats

Streams, rivers and their banks.

Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there. All habitats

Ecological relationships

Who uses this plant?

What these records mean

8CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including VA

Genus host records with ranges including VA · Sparganium

Bellura obliquaCattail Border Moth, Cattail Diver
Elophila icciusalisPondside Pyralid, Pondside Crambid
Elophila obliteralisWaterlily Leafcutter Moth
Nymphalis antiopaMourning Cloak
Parapoynx badiusalisChestnut-Marked Pondweed Moth
Parapoynx obscuralisObscure Pondweed Moth
Parapoynx seminealisFloating-Heart Waterlilly Moth, Waterlily Casebearer
Plusia putnamiPutnam's Looper Moth, Lempke's Gold Spot

Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)

0BeesSoutheastern regional records

0Specialist beesPollen specialists

8BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim

Recorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claim · Sparganium

Anas creccaGreen-winged Teal
Anas platyrhynchosMallard
Anas rubripesAmerican Black Duck
Antigone canadensisSandhill Crane
Aythya collarisRing-necked Duck
Branta canadensisCanada Goose
Cygnus olorMute Swan
Fulica americanaAmerican Coot

Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)

Direct food only: birds recorded eating this genus across North America. Caterpillars on host plants also feed nesting birds. NC Native Plant Society: butterfly gardening

No records yet · Ants · Beetles · Flies · Adult butterflies / moths · Other wasps · Other insects

Growing and identification

Plant details

Family: Typhaceae

Growing sources and scope

Bloom · “May to September” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) · Carolinas and Georgia
Light · “Partial shade; Full sun (documented habitat)” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) · Carolinas and Georgia
Soil · “Water; Wet (documented habitat)” · FloraQuest: Carolinas, Georgia (Southeastern Flora Team), phone app (app page) · Carolinas and Georgia

Also known as

Greenfruit Bur reed; Sparganium chlorocarpum

Conservation status

Virginia rank	S1
Global rank	G5
VA status	Not verified
Federal status	Not verified

Conservation source Global and federal source

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