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Scleria lacustris

Common Name: Wright's nut-rush

Family: Cyperaceae

Common Synonyms: none

USDA Hardiness Zone: NA

Growth Habit: Graminoid

Origin: Central and South America, the Caribbean, and sub-Saharan Africa

FISC Category: 1

FDACS Listed Noxious Weed: No

Introduction Date: First collected in Florida in 1988

IFAS Assessment:

  • North: CAUTION
  • Central: INVASIVE
  • South: INVASIVE
Green living grass clump without flowers in a patch of dead grasses
Robert Gundy
Close up of grass base showing maroon blotches and striations
Robert Gundy

Description

Graminoid with terminal panicles that may extend 1-2 meters in height and are conspicuous and open when achenes mature. Main stem strongly retrorsely scabrous. Leaves to 25 mm wide, plicate, sparsely pubescent. Hypogynium present, clearly differentiated from achene body by change in texture and color, without cilia on the margin, bluntly 3-angled. Achenes smooth, greenish to whitish or mottled gray. Flowers in August-September and seedlings emerge in late spring.

Habitat

Wetlands, seasonal marshes, freshwater marshes, peninsular Florida

Comments

Species spreads via abundant and highly viable wind dispersed seeds and transported via airboat. No runners.

Map of species distribution

Control Methods

  • Manual: Small infestations can be removed by hand and seed heads clipped
  • Chemical: Application of a 0.05% solution of herbicide product that contains 2 lb a.i. diquat dibromide (with surfactant) to small seedlings, which should be present in June, can destroy 100% of the plants. Later application in mid-July, when plants are more developed, will require solutions of 0.1% to 0.2%. Due to the dense, over-lapping growth at the later growth stage, a follow-up herbicide treatment should be completed within 14 days of the initial application to ensure that all plants within the treatment area are treated.
  • Biological: None known.

Control Notes

NA

References

Jacono, C.C. 2001. Scleria lacustris (Cyperaceae), an aquatic and wetland sedge introduced to Florida. SIDA, Contributions to Botany 19(4): 1163-1170.

IFAS, UF. 2017. Assessment of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas. Scleria lacustris. https://assessment.ifas.ufl.edu/assessments/scleria-lacustris/. Accessed April 14, 2022.

Wunderlin, R. P., B. F. Hansen, A. R. Franck, and F. B. Essig. 2022. Atlas of Florida Plants (http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/). [S. M. Landry and K. N. Campbell (application development), USF Water Institute.] Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa.

IFAS, UF. 2022. Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants Directory. Scleria lacustris. https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/scleria-lacustris/. Accessed July 26, 2022.

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