Plant Guide > Grasses > Nut Rush

Nut Rush

Nut RushNUT-RUSH. (Scleria)

The Nut-rushes are small, slender sedges, not uncommon in marshes and low meadows during midsummer, although seldom noticed among the taller growth that surrounds them.

Low Nut-rush (Scleria verticillata) is very slender, never more than three feet in height and usually much less than that.

The stems are sharply threeangled and bear a few narrow leaves above which are the small spikelets in four to six sessile, green or purplish clusters.

The ripened fruit is more conspicuous than are the flowers, as the shining white seed is very prominent.

The generic name, derived from the Greek, alludes to the hardness of these "nuts," which are roughened by broken horizontal ridges and well repay a close examination with the microscope.