Sparganium, commonly known as the bur-reed, is a genus of aquatic plants of shallow marshes, ponds, and streams.

[8] Sparganium is an important component of aquatic and marsh vegetation in temperate to arctic regions.

Further, he noted, "the virtues of Sparganium: The roote is good to be geven wyth wyne agaynste the poyson of serpentes."

Many fossil endocarps and a few seeds of †Sparganium pusilloides have been described from middle Miocene strata of the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, Denmark.

Fossils of 20 endocarps of †Sparganium simplex and 1 endocarp of †Sparganium multiloculare have also been described from the Fasterholt area near Silkeborg in Central Jutland, S. multiloculare is also described from the Oligocene of southern England and the Oligocene and Miocene floras of Central Europe and Western Siberia.