Color, pale pink or nearly white. Slender, erect spikes of small flowers, flesh color, terminate the branches. Leaves, narrow, lance-shaped, with soft hairs along the midrib underneath. Sheaths, narrow, bristly-fringed, marked with short lines, 1 to 3 feet high. If tasted the juice is acid and pungent. June to September.

In wet places, swamps, and even growing quite in water, over all the country.

P. arifolium, described on page 58, may be taken for a pink flower since its calyx is green, edged with pink.