Skye Flora

Spiny Quillwort


Isoetes echinospora

Other name: Isoetes setacea

Isoetes echinospora

Photo © Don Lubin
Ferns of New England
(Massachusetts, USA)

Rare, in lochs with peaty bottoms

Leaves up to c 20 cm long

Skye ID: See Quillwort for distinctions from various flowering plants with similar leaves.  Told from Quillwort by leaves being flaccid, often lying flat on the loch bottom, and by the leaves tapering uniformly from the base to the tip, instead of being parallel-sided until near the tip and then tapering.

Other features: Quillworts have groups of large female spores (c 1/2 mm diameter) at the base of some leaves, and groups of small male spores at the base of others.  In this species the large spores are covered with spines, but in Quillwort they are covered with blunt tubercles.

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Isoetes echinospora

Photo © Don Lubin
Ferns of New England
(Massachusetts, USA)


Back to species list