Nuttall's quillwort

Isoëtes suksdorfii Baker

Plants terrestrial or becoming so. Rootstock nearly globose, 2(--3)-lobed. Leaves deciduous, dull green to gray-green or yellow-green, pale toward base, spirally arranged, to 20 cm, ± rigid, gradually tapering to tip, often surrounded at base by several black scales to ca. 5 mm, spirally arranged, rigid, almost brittle. Velum covering entire sporangium. Sporangium wall unpigmented. Megaspores white, 360--600 μm diam., lustrous, ± smooth to tuberculate; girdle obscure. Microspores brown in mass, 20--30 μm, papillose. 2n = 22.

Spores mature in late spring-early summer. Seasonally wet soil, temporary streams; mostly 0--1500 m; B.C.; Calif., Oreg., Wash.