Yellow nutsedge
August 10, 2015
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EmailCyperus esculentus L.
Life cycle
Rhizomatous perennial sedge.
Patch of yellow nutsedge.
Leaves
Yellowish green, shiny, grass-like 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.
Yellow nutsedge seedling.
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.
Triangular stem of yellow nutsedge.
Flowers and fruit
The seedhead consists of numerous yellowish brown spikelets, which occur in a terminal, umbrella-like cluster. Under each seedhead is a whorl of several long, leaf-like bracts. The seed is enclosed in a single-seeded, three-angled, yellowish brown fruit with a blunt end.
Yellow nutsedge seedhead.
Reproduction
Tubers, rhizomes and, very rarely, seeds.
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