Perianth bristles present. 2n = 38.

Fruiting summer-fall. Fresh-water shores, ponds, and ditches, usually drying, usually in sandy soils, often emergent, with relatively little water-level fluctuations; 0-1000 m; Ont., Que.; Ala., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Annual herb with 1 mm wide rhizomes, tufted 10 cm - 1 m tall

Leaves: one, to as long as culm. Sheath fronts not bearing pinnate fibers. Ligules membranous. Blade zero or one, tiny or longer than sheath, 0.5 - 1 mm wide, C-shaped in cross-section, parallel-veined.

Inflorescence: composed of one to twelve spikelets, terminal, subtended by bracts. Lowest bract leaf-like, upright or diverging, 1 - 15 cm long, nearly circular in cross-section and channeled.

Flowers: minute, subtended by a floral scale, lacking sepals and petals, bearing six bristles. Bristles brown, equal to or slightly longer than achene body, distinctly wider basally, strap-like, bearing small spines. Stamens three, exserted. Anthers about 0.5 mm long. Pistil one. Style linear, two-cleft or both two- and three-cleft.

Fruit: a one-seeded achene, brown, becoming darker, 1.5 - 2 mm long (including beak), 1 - 1.5 mm wide, reverse egg-shaped with a rounded to stalk-like base, beaked, mostly widely biconvex.

Culm: decumbent to arching, 10 cm - 1 m long, 0.5 - 2 mm wide, circular in cross-section, solid, internally spongy with air cavities.

Spikelets: solitary or in clusters, 5 - 12 mm long, 3 - 4 mm wide, circular in cross-section, with eight or more floral scales. Floral scales spirally arranged, orangish brown to straw-colored with a greenish midrib and tiny lines or spots, 2.5 - 3 mm long, 2.5 mm wide, widely reverse egg-shaped with a rounded apex bearing a tiny point, minutely hairy-fringed towards the apex. The lower scales of the spikelet often bear two to ten distinct ribs along their flanks.

Similar species: No information at this time.

Flowering: late June to late September

Habitat and ecology: Relatively frequent in the dune area of the eastern sector of the Chicago Region. Found growing along shorelines and in low sandy meadows. Rarer in the sandy districts inland.

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Etymology: Schoenoplectus comes from the Greek words schoinos, meaning rush or reed, and plectos, meaning twisted, plaited, or woven, referring to the use of the culms for making useful objects. Purshianus is named after Frederick Traugott Pursh (1774-1820), the Saxon explorer and horticulturist who discovered this species.

Author: The Morton Arboretum