Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by tubers.

Time of bloom: July to September.

Seed-time: August to October.

Range: Maine to Ontario, Minnesota, and Nebraska, southward to Florida and Texas.

Habitat: Damp meadows, swamps, and along streams.

This plant is very variable, having dwarf varieties and others with globose heads; but in any form it is a weed, almost worthless as forage, even when young. Ordinarily it grows one to three feet tall, the three-sided culms rather stout, tufted, rising from a cluster of hard, corm-like tubers. Leaves flat and soft, rough-edged, about a quarter-inch wide and equaling the stem in length; those forming the involucre are much longer than the rays of the umbel, which are simple or compound, their sheaths terminating in two bristles; spikelets numerous, flattened, linear, eight to ten-flowered, spreading, in loose oblong or ovoid heads; stamens three; style three-parted, the branched tips exserted; scales straw-colored, oblong lance-shape, strongly nerved, much longer than the slim, three-angled, and pointed achene. (Fig. 36.)

Fig. 36. - Straw-colored Cyperus (Cy-perus strigosus). X 1/4.

Means Of Control

Drainage of the ground, followed by a cultivated crop very thoroughly tilled so as to destroy the tuberous rootstocks re-seeding heavily to red-top or timothy.