QUILLWORT

quillwort

(noun) any of several spore-bearing aquatic or marsh plants having short rhizomes and leaves resembling quills; worldwide except Polynesia

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

quillwort (plural quillworts)

Any of various simple microphyllous vascular plants, of the family Isoetaceae, that resemble rushes and produce spores.

Source: Wiktionary

Quill"wort`, n. (Bot.)

Definition: Any plant or species of the genus Isoetes, cryptogamous plants with a cluster of elongated four-tubed rushlike leaves, rising from a corm, and containing spores in their enlarged and excavated bases. There are about seventeen American species, usually growing in the mud under still, shallow water. So called from the shape of the shape of the leaves.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition