Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

GREEN BULRUSH

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Scirpus atrovirens Willd.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 3 to 5 feet

Family: Cyperaceae - Sedge Family

Flowering Period: June, July

Also Called:

Dark green bulrush, gray-head bulrush.

Culms:

Erect, solitary or several, slender, somewhat 3-sided.

Leaves:

Blades 4-9, mostly on lower 1/2 of culms, well-developed, to 4/5 inch wide, dark green; margins rough; lower leaf blades and sheaths cross-partitioned.

Inflorescences:

Panicle-like, open or compact, usually twice-branched, terminal, consisting of dense, nearly spherical clusters of 8-20 spikelets borne at ends of rays; bracts several, leaf-like, often exceeding inflorescences.

Spikelets:

Egg-shaped, brown, less than 1/2 inch long; flowers perfect; scales elliptic, dark green, turning brownish black or lead-gray with age; tips abruptly short-pointed; bristles 6, at bases of flowers, barbed, shorter than or slightly longer than achenes; stamens 3; styles 3-cleft.

Fruits:

Achenes, egg-shaped, flattened to 3-angled, pale brown, 1-seeded.

Habitat:

Marshes, wet meadows, ditches, and stream edges.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Uses:

Native Americans and pioneers used the roots for food. Waterfowl eat the seeds.

Comments:

When mature, the inflorescences shatter if the plant is disturbed, scattering the achenes.

Green bulrush inflorescence