Yellow nutsedge – Cyperus esculentus - Plant & Pest Diagnostics

Yellow nutsedge – Cyperus esculentus

Cyperus esculentus L.

Cyperaceae (Sedge family)

MI Status

Native

Life cycle

Rhizomatous perennial sedge.

Leaves

Yellowish green, shiny, grasslike leaves are long and narrow, and distinctly ridged along the midvein, and they narrow to a long, sharp point. Leaves are mostly basal and alternate, and they point outward from the stem in three directions.

Stems

Erect, solid, up to 3-foot-tall stems are triangular in cross-section. Plants spread by wiry, scaly rhizomes and nutlike tubers produced at the rhizome tips.

Flowers and fruit

The seedhead consists of numerous yellowish brown spikelets, which occur in a terminal, umbrellalike cluster. Under each seedhead is a whorl of several long, leaflike bracts. The seed is enclosed in a single-seeded, three-angled, yellowish brown fruit with a blunt end.

Reproduction

Tubers, rhizomes and, very rarely, seeds.

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Plant & Pest Diagnostics