Scheuchzeria

a genus of perennial herbs of the family Scheuchzeriaceae. The plants have a climbing rhizome. The leaves, which are situated high on the stem, are two-rowed and linear. The leaf sheaths are enlarged. The small greenish bisexual flowers are in a loose racemose inflorescence. The perianth consists of six leaflets arranged in two circles. The fruit is usually trifoliate, with three bulging fruitlets widely spaced apart.

There are one or two species, distributed in cold and temperate belts of the northern hemisphere. The USSR has one species, S. palustris, which grows everywhere but in the southern European portion, in Siberia, and in the Far East. The plant occurs in very damp sphagnum swamps, on swampy peat shores of reservoirs, and in floating masses of vegetation. The Scheuchzeria aid in the formation of peat.