Scirpus maritimus L.

• Authority

  Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

• Family

  Cyperaceae

• Scientific Name

  Scirpus maritimus L.

• Description

  Species Description - Stout perennial with tuber-bearing rhizomes; stems mostly 6–15 dm, sharply triquetrous; lvs usually several, elongate, ± flat, to ca 1 cm wide; orifice of the lf-sheaths truncate or concave, the ventral veins gradually diverging well below the summit and the intervening thin triangle easily torn; bracts 2–5, the outer elongate, the inner dilated at base and contracted to a narrow blade; spikelets 3–20+, some or all sessile in a central cluster, some often single or clustered on rays to 5 cm, ovate to cylindric, 10–40 mm; scales puberulent, thin-margined, notched at the tip, the midvein prolonged into a curved awn 1–3 mm; bristles 2–6, shorter than the achene, or obsolete; style bifid or trifid; achene brown to black, glossy, lenticular or planoconvex to trigonous, 2.5–4 mm, obovate, broadly rounded to the minute beak-apiculus; 2n=80–114. Fr June–Sept. (Bolboschoenus m.) Fresh, saline, or alkaline swamps and marshes; interruptedly circumboreal, with 2 vars. in our range. Atlantic coastal plants represent the var. maritimus, found also in Europe, bicarpellate or often tricarpellate, with ± acute spikelets and with the inner invol bracts often basally anthocyanic. Western plants, extending e. to Minn., Mich., and Mo., represent the dubious var. paludosus (A. Nelson) Kük., bicarpellate, with blunt spikelets, the inner invol bracts only rarely anthocyanic at base. (S. paludosus)

• Common Names

  alkali-bulrush