Scirpus cyperinus

Native to Florida

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This large native sedge may first be noticed as a colony of 6 ft. tall, somewhat widely spaced Scirpus-like stems, each stem topped by a large, shaggy brownish inflorescence hanging and drooping, several inches long. Scirpus cyperinus is occasionally found growing in marshes, swamps, and pond margins from the northern counties south to the central peninsula of Florida (Wunderlin, 2003). It blooms from summer to fall. Wool-grass occurs almost always under natural conditions in wetlands.

Wool-grass is a bulrush sedge. stems erect, to 6 ft. tall; leaf blades very long, from the base, channeled, to 3 ft. long, to 3/4 in. wide, folded at tip, margins rough; inflorescence many spikelet clusters, wooly-looking when mature, each cluster hanging on a long thin green stalk, green stalks converging at stem tip; bracts 2-3, long, leaf-like; spikelets as many as 500, ovoid, brownish, on secondary and even tertiary stalks; nutlets 3-angled, ridged.