Cladium mariscoides is a perennial herb spreading by means of underground rhizomes. Culms are up to 100 centimetres (39 in) tall. Leaves are very narrow, less than 3 mm across. Spikelets are chestnut brown, born in a panicle with 1st and 2nd order branching but not 3rd order.
[3][5][6][7][8][9][10]
^Small, J. K. 1933. Manual of the Southeastern Flora i–xxii, 1–1554.
^Scoggan, H. J. 1978 [1979]. Pteridophyta, Gymnospermae, Monocotyledoneae. 2: 93–545. In Flora of Canada. National Museums of Canada, Ottawa.
^Gleason, H. A. & A.J. Cronquist. 1968. The Pteridophytoa, Gymnospermae and Monocotyledoneae. 1: 1–482. In H. A. Gleason New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada (ed. 3). New York Botanical Garden, New York.