Scirpus cyperinus (L.) Kunth
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Cyperaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Cespitose perennial, forming dense tussocks on short tough rhizomes; stems to 2 m; principal blades 3–10 mm wide; bracts lf-like, unequal, spreading, usually drooping at the tip, pigmented at base but not glutinous; rays of the infl several, ascending below, ± divaricate above, branched and involucellate toward the tip, the ultimate branches with 1–several sessile spikelets and often 1 or 2 pedicellate spikelets; spikelets ovoid to cylindric, 3–5(–10) mm; scales elliptic or oval, 1–2 mm, obtuse and mucronulate to broadly acute, marked (at high magnification) with numerous fine red lines; bristles 6, smooth, contorted, evidently surpassing the scales and giving the mature spikelets a woolly look; style trifid; achene pale yellowish-gray to nearly white, obovate, compressed-trigonous, 0.7–1 mm, sharply short-beaked; 2n=60, 64, 66, 68, 70. Bogs, marshes, and wet meadows; Nf. to B.C., s. to Fla. and Tex. Fr June–Sept. Highly variable, consisting of several geographically and ecologically widely overlapping phases that intergrade freely without wholly losing their identity. (S. atrocinctus, mainly northern, and extending w. to B.C., in meadows, with pedicellate spikelets, blackish scales, and early fr; S. pedicellatus, northern but not western, in alluvial marshes, with pedicellate spikelets, pale brown scales, and late fr. (S. eriophorum; S. rubricosus) Putative hybrids with no. 24 [Scirpus atrovirens Willd.] have been called S. ×peckii Britton.
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Common Names
wool-grass