Cladium jamaicense
Native to Florida
Video Transcript
Saw-grass - Cladium jamaicense
The aptly named saw-grass is a large sedge, known as the dominant plant of the Everglades. It grows in fresh and brackish-water swamps and marshes, and along lake shores throughout Florida.
It also can grow well on dry ground. Saw-grass stems typically grow to 6 or 7 feet tall from stout, short runners. The stem is 3-angled but not sharply so, and is hollow. Saw-grass leaves
grow from the base and lower stem of the plant. The grey-green leaves are very long, typically 3 feet, and they are stiff and tough. They are flat to v-shaped and relatively narrow:
about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide. Both leaf margins and the underside midrib have cutting saw teeth. Do not attempt to walk through these plants. The large influorescence of saw-grass, which may be
several feet tall, has many, often-drooping branches and branchlets. Each branchlet has 2 to 6 brown spikelets at the tip. Each ovoid spikelet has 2 or 3 spreading scales. The fruit is a
small, wrinkled, ovoid nutlet.
Saw-grass is a native sedge.