Rush-like dwarf sedge
Scientific name: Scirpoides holoschoenus (L.) Soják
Family: Cyperaceae
MORPHOLOGY
Habit and dimensions: Perennial herbaceous plant, ranging from 20 to 150 cm in height.
Stem: Erect, cylindrical stem, smooth and glabrous; flowering stem rush-like, without leaves.
Leaves: The lower ones reduced to sheaths, the upper ones rush-like and flaccid.
Flowers: Inflorescence: 1 spherical head of multi-flowered spikes, sometimes with 1-2 smaller pedunculate heads; black in color, then reddish-brown. Flowers are inconspicuous hermaphrodites; the perianth is absent, replaced by wedge-shaped to heart-shaped glumes with two apical lobes and an acute mucro; bracts 2, one spreading, the other erect and elongated, 20-40 cm long. Blooms from May to September.
Fruits and seeds: The fruit is an ovoid achene.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
Common throughout Italy in ditches, ponds, marshes, and shores, even in brackish water and in wet meadows, from 0 to 1,200 m.
Photo: under a free license by Saxifraga and Ed Stikvoort





















