The rare Georgia quillwort looks more like a grass than a fern | Mystery Plant

Ferns are an interesting group of plants from a very ancient lineage, all of them vascularized, with plenty of water-conducting internal “plumbing.” Ferns have vascular tissue in common with the gymnosperms (cycads, pines, cedars, cypress, etc.) as well as the flowering plants (orchids, roses, sunflowers, sand-spurs, etc.).

But, ferns don’t produce any flowers, or for that matter, fruits or seeds. Instead, they produce tiny spores which act as their dispersal units. Spore are released from the plant out of specialized structures called “sporangia,” and after floating around in the air for a while, the spores commonly settle down on the ground somewhere and sprout.

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We are talking TINY here — with a resultant little plant that botanists call a gametophyte. The gametophyte is extremely important however, in the grand view of all things fernish, since that’s where the gametes (egg and sperm cells) are produced. Following fertilization, a completely new plant body arises from the gametophyte.

This new plant is what everybody recognizes as a “fern,” frequently developing a rhizome down below, and with beautiful green leaves above the ground. The new plant is also where the spores come from, and the cycle can begin again. 

But we are dealing today with something that botanists used to call a “fern-ally,” one of several groups of plants that are similar to ferns, but which don’t look very ferny, and many of which having reproductive processes not shared by the “true” ferns. Don’t worry, there aren’t any “fern-enemies.” 

Our Mystery Plant (Georgia quillwort, Georgia Merlin’s-grass, Isoetes georgiana) is one of about 100 species which are placed in the very curious genus Isoetes.

You will agree, I hope, that it doesn’t look much like a fern. It looks more like an aquatic grass with a tuft of skinny, floppy foliage. Pretty drab and uninteresting, and commonly overlooked as anything special.

These plants commonly grow in ponds and shallow pools, or stream margins, generally submersed, from a knotty little corm in the mud. Those leaves are soft, long and “quill”-like (as in an old-timey pen for writing). At the base of a leaf will be a special hollow place, protected by a thin membrane, in which the spores are produced.

Unlike the true ferns, species of Isoetes produce two kinds of spores: microspores (“male”) and megaspores (“female”)…not just a single kind. The resultant reproductive pathway for producing a new quillwort is fascinating, although a bit complicated.

About 25 species of Isoetes are found within the United States, widespread in the East and West — not so much in the middle of country. It’s those tiny megaspores (oxymoron!)  with their various surface bumps, ridges, and spines that allow us to differentiate species.

The Southeast boasts quite a diversity of these plants, and it seems that new ones are being discovered and named just about every year.

Our Mystery Isoetes is a rare one — and is known from only a few places in southwestern Georgia. Like so many other rare species in the Southeast, it is certainly worth protection.

John Nelson is the retired curator of the A. C. Moore Herbarium at the University of South Carolina in Columbia SC. As a public service, the Herbarium offers free plant identifications. For more information, visit www.herbarium.org or email johnbnelson@sc.rr.com.

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