China Quillwort

China Quillwort is a kind of perennial marsh plant, belonging to the Quillwort Genus of the Isoetaceae Family, with the Latin name of Isoetes sinensis. It is 15 to 30 centimeters high and bears fleshy and tuberous rhizome that has two or three segments. The leaves grow thickly upward, most of which queue imbricately. The herbaceous leaves are juicy, bright green and linear, with 15 to 30 centimeters in length and 1 to 2 millimeters in width. Its oval sporangia, covered by a white membrane, are about 9 millimeters long and 3 millimeters in diameter. The megasporangium is usually borne on the axis-toward sides of the peripheral basilaminar with a few white tetrahedral granular megaspores, while the microsporangium is borne on axis-toward sides of the interior basilaminar, with many gray dusty dual-shaped microspores.      

It grows in subtropical regions where it is mild and humid, rainy in spring and summer while unclouded and cold in winter. It is mainly found beside shallow pools and in puddled soil of mountain trenches, which contain abundant organic substance, with the pH value of 6 to 6.5. The period of spore lasts from the last ten days of May to the end of October.

It is distributed over Nanjing of Jiangsu Province, Xiuning, Tunxi and Dangtu of Anhui Province, Hangzhou, Zhuji, Jiande and Lishui of Zhejiang Province. The Quillwort is the only epibiotic of the Isoetaceae Family found in existence; therefore it is of great importance for scientific research.

 Wide Blade Quillwort

It belongs to the Quillwort Genus of the Isoetaceae Family, with the Latin name of Isoetes japonica.         

It is a kind of perennial aquatic herbaceous plant, about 15 to 30 centimeters high. It bears short and thick rhizomes, fleshy and tuberous, with 3 segments. There are several white fibrous roots on the bottom. The herbaceous leaves are green, linear, sub-transparent, with 20 to 30 centimeters in length and 5 to 10 millimeters in width, most of which tuft together. There are many gray powder-like microspores in the macrosporangium borne on peripheral leaves.

It grows in subtropical regions with monsoon climate, neither cold in winter nor hot in summer. It is a kind of submerged plant, usually found in ravine streams or swamps with slow water flow, and sometimes in 1-meter-deep ditches. The submerged plants generally grow well. Those grow in swamps are comparatively stunted, whose leaves come out of the water. The leaves usually begin to grow in April and May, and bear sporangia on leaf base in July and August, and the spores ripen till September and October.

In China, it is only distributed in a few places in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. It needs urgent protection.