Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Scirpus cespitosus L.
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: July-August
- Field Marks: This small bulrush has a small, solitary, terminal spikelet and a single green leaf that is a short distance above the straw-colored scale leaves at the base of the plant.
- Habitat: Marshes, bogs.
- Habit: Perennial herb with a short rhizome and fibrous roots.
- Stems: Upright, round, not triangular, pale green, up to 1 1/4 feet tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Mostly scale-like and straw-colored at the base of the plant; a single green leaf usually a short distance above the scale leaves up to 1/4 inch long, smooth.
- Flowers: Very few in a solitary, terminal spikelet; spikelet ovoid to oblongoid, up to 1/4 inch long, subtended by a linear bract up to 1/4 inch long; scales ovate, yellow-brown.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth; styles 3-cleft.
- Fruits: Achenes oblongoid, pointed at the tip, triangular, brown, up to 1/6 inch long, smooth.
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