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:
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.
Wetlands, seasonal marshes, freshwater marshes, peninsular Florida
Species spreads via abundant and highly viable wind dispersed seeds and transported via airboat. No runners.
NA
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.