Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani
Schoenoplectus americanus
great bulrush, scirpe des étangs, soft-stem bulrush, soft-stem club-bulrush, tule
American bulrush, chair-maker's club-bulrush, chairmaker's bulrush, Olney bulrush, Olney's bulrush, Olney's three-square bulrush, schoenoplectus
3–10 mm diam.
2–5 mm diam.
cylindric, 0.5–3 m × 2–10 mm.
sharply trigonous, sides deeply concave throughout to rarely nearly flat, 0.4–2.5 m × 3–10 mm.
3–4, basal;
sheath fronts membranous-translucent, often pinnate-fibrillose;
blades 1–2, C-shaped to dorsiventrally flat in cross section, usually much shorter than sheath, distal blade 2–200 × 1–4 mm, margins often scabridulous.
ca. 3, basal, less than 1/2 culm length;
sheath fronts not pinnate-fibrillose;
blades 1–3, V-shaped near base, otherwise laterally flattened-trigonous in cross section;
distal blade 0.2–1.5 times as long as sheath, 25–200 × 2–8 mm.
2–4 times branched, branches to 15(–25) cm;
proximal bract usually erect, thickly C-shaped to subterete, 1–8 cm, margins sometimes scabridulous.
capitate or very rarely with 1 branch to 5 mm;
proximal bract usually erect, resembling leaf blade, 1–6 cm.
15–200, solitary or in clusters of 2–4(–7), commonly all solitary, 3–17 × 2.5–4 mm;
scales uniformly dark to pale orange-brown, sometimes straw-colored, sometimes prominently lineolate-spotted, midrib often pale or green, ovate, 2–3.5 × 1.5–2 mm, sparsely (rarely densely) reddish or straw-colored, scabrous on awn and distal parts of midrib and sometimes flanks, margins ciliate, hairs contorted;
flanks veinless, apex obtuse to rounded, notch 0.2–0.3 mm deep, awn straight or bent, 0.2–0.8 mm.
2–20, 5–15 × 3–5 mm;
scales bright orange- to red- or purple-brown to straw-colored, often partly translucent, usually clearly lineolate-spotted, broadly ovate, 2.7–4 × 2–3 mm, smooth or awn sparsely spinulose, margins deciduously ciliolate, flanks of proximal scale often with several ribs, apex rounded to acute, notch 0.1–0.4 mm deep, awn not contorted, 0.2–0.6 mm.
perianth bristles 6, brown, ± equaling achene, densely retrorsely spinulose;
anthers 2 mm;
styles 2-fid, sometimes 3-fid near spikelet apex.
perianth members (2–)5–6(–7), yellow-brown, bristlelike, slender to stout, often unequal to equaling 1/2 achene body, retrorsely spinulose;
anthers 1.5–3 mm;
styles 2-fid or 2-fid and 3-fid.
dark gray-brown when ripe, plano-convex, obovoid, 1.5–2.8 × 1.2–1.7 mm;
beak 0.2–0.4 mm.
brown when ripe, thickly plano-convex or unequally biconvex or compressed obtusely trigonous, obovoid, 1.8–2.8 × 1.3–2 mm;
beak 0.1–0.3 mm.
= 42.
= 78.
Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani
Schoenoplectus americanus
Two yellow-striped forms of Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani are grown as ornamentals.
Schoenoplectus validus, described from the Caribbean, and S. tabernaemontani, described from Europe, are here treated as one variable, cosmopolitan species without infraspecific taxa, pending further studies (J. Browning et al. 1995b; S. G. Smith 1995). Most North American plants have spikelets with reddish papillae or prickles on the scales, whereas some plants of coastal and boreal North America closely resemble most plants of northwestern Europe and southern Africa in their densely reddish prickly-papillose scales and are similar to the type of Scirpus glaucus J. E. Smith.
Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani, S. acutus, S. heterochaetus, S. lacustris, and S. triqueter belong to the very difficult S. lacustris complex. The entire complex except S. triqueter was treated as the single species Scirpus lacustris (T. Koyama 1962b). Many Old World authors treat Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani as S. lacustris var. tabernaemontani or subsp. glaucus.
Much of the local infraspecific variation in the Schoenoplectus lacustris complex is probably because of hybridization. Some studies support the recognition of separate species in this group (J. Browning et al. 1995b). Hybrids in North America include S. acutus × S. tabernaemontani, widespread and common, especially in the east; S. acutus × S. heterochaetus = S. ×oblongus (T. Koyama) Soják, widespread but uncommon; S. heterochaetus × S. tabernaemontani = S. ×steinmetzii (Fernald) S. G. Smith, eastern and most uncommon; S. tabernaemontani × S. triqueter = S. ×kuekenthalianus (Junge) Kent, lower Columbia River in Oregon and probably Washington; and S. acutus var. occidentalis × S. californicus, local in California. Except for its trigonous culms, S. triqueter is very similar to the S. lacustris complex and freely hybridizes with S. tabernaemontani, both in North America and Europe.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
The secondary involucral bracts of Schoenoplectus americanus lack blades and closely resemble floral scales, in contrast to S. pungens and S. deltarum. Although mostly very locally distributed, S. americanus is ecologically important in many coastal marshes. In recent years it has seriously declined (e.g., in Maryland and Louisiana). It may occur in southwestern Kansas; I have not seen a specimen. It probably has been extirpated from the Missouri station, based on one collection from 1886 (G. Yatskievych, pers. comm.). The report from New Hampshire is based on M. L. Fernald (1950). The stations on the Maine and Connecticut coasts, at Lake Champlain in Vermont, and in Oklahoma are based on putative S. americanus × S. pungens specimens. Some plants in the southwest are atypical in having nearly flat culm sides and leaf blades to 1.5 times as long as their sheaths as in the type of Scirpus monophyllus J. Presl & C. Presl from Peru. The name Scirpes americanus was long misapplied to Schoenoplectus pungens; Schoenoplectus americanus was known as Scirpus olneyi (A. E. Schuyler 1974).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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- Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA
- Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, Go Botany, KS Wildflowers, LA Plants, MD Biodiversity, MI Flora, MO Plants, PNW Herbaria
- WildflowerSearch
- iNaturalist (observations)
- USDA Plants Database
- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
