Branched Bur Reed
Sparganium androcladum
Found in marshes, shores, sloughs, ponds, sinkhole ponds, and ditches. Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), Northern Tier edition What its natural habitat tells you
Native to West Virginia. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 71%
- Height
- 2–4 feet
- Soil moisture
- Moist to wet
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
- Life cycle
- Perennial
Not yet recorded · Spread · Light · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 1 West Virginia county.
Natural habitats
Places it grows wild. Not a planting requirement. Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Open, herb-covered wetlands with fresh, non-tidal water.
Still water and its edges: ponds, lakes, millponds and reservoirs.
Ponds and wet depressions in limestone sinkholes of the interior valleys and plateaus (karst), separate from the Coastal Plain's limesink ponds.
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Ground opened by people: roadsides, old fields, pastures, fencerows and lots.
Who uses this plant?
7CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including WV
Genus host records with ranges including WV · Sparganium
- Bellura obliquaCattail Border Moth, Cattail Diver
- Elophila icciusalisPondside Pyralid, Pondside Crambid
- Elophila obliteralisWaterlily Leafcutter Moth
- Globia laetaRed Sedge Borer Moth
- Nymphalis antiopaMourning Cloak
- Parapoynx badiusalisChestnut-Marked Pondweed Moth
- Parapoynx obscuralisObscure Pondweed Moth
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
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
Plant details
- Family
- Sparganiaceae
- Flower color
- Yellow or green
Growing sources and scope
- Flower color · “Yellow or green” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Height · “2–4 feet” · Minnesota Wildflowers
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · Minnesota Wildflowers
Conservation status
| West Virginia rank | S2 |
|---|---|
| Global rank | Not available |
| WV status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
Will it fit your yard?
Check this plant against your county, sun and soil moisture. Conditions are checked in your browser.
Sources
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025), South Central edition
- NatureServe Explorer
- West Virginia occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications