SafePlants

Understanding Sedges, Rushes, and Grasses

This page provides an overview of sedges, rushes, and grasses, focusing on how to distinguish between these often-confused plant types. It also highlights specific sedge species and their characteristics.

Considerations for Pets

• Several species of sedges are found in various areas, including near water sources like ponds and lakes. Pets exploring these environments may encounter them.

Considerations for Children

• Sedges, rushes, and grasses are common in many environments, and children might encounter them while playing outdoors. Distinguishing characteristics, like the edges of sedge stems or the roundness of rush stems, might be of interest.

Distinguishing Characteristics

• Sedges: Often have triangular stems. A helpful rhyme is "Sedges have edges." The lower part of a sedge leaf forms a closed tube (sheath) around the stem.
• Rushes: Typically have round, solid stems. Another part of the rhyme is, "Rushes are round."
• Grasses: Generally have round, hollow stems with solid joints (nodes). The rhyme is completed with, "Grasses are hollow right up from the…"

Taxonomy and Nomenclature

• Family: Cyperaceae (Sedge Family)
• Genus: Carex (True Sedges), Cyperus
• Species: Carex lacustris (Lake Sedge), Cyperus rotundus (coco-grass, Java grass, nut grass, purple nut sedge), Carex rotundata (Round sedge, roundfruit sedge)
• Species: Carex globosa (Round Fruit Sedge)

Morphological Characteristics

• Sedge stems can be triangular, round, or flat.
• Nutlets (tubers) from some sedges are brown, round, and lack hairs.
• Flowers of tall umbrella sedge are dense and headlike.
• Yellow nutsedge produces round, smooth, brown or black tubers.

Distribution and Habitat

• Round Fruit Sedge (Carex globosa) is native to northern, southern and central California.
• Beaked sedge is commonly found in wet soils, such as edges of ponds and lakes.
• Cyperus rotundus gets its species name from the Latin "rotundus", meaning "round".
• Several species of Sedge occur around Las Vegas.

Interesting Points

• The text references Hilton Pond as a natural area where one might encounter sedges, rushes, and grasses.
• The text mentions Round Maple, a hamlet in Suffolk, England.