Flora of North America species comparison

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Scleria lacustris

lakeshore nutrush
Habit Plants annual; rhizomes absent; roots purplish brown to black, fibrous.
Culms

mostly solitary or few together, stout, 60–180 cm, strongly retrorsely scabrous.
Leaves

proximal sheaths purplish, winged, strongly ribbed, sparsely pubescent;

contra-ligule triangular;

blades linear, M-shaped in cross section, shorter than culms, 10–25 mm wide, glabrous, retrorsely scabrous on midrib, mid lateral veins, and margins.
Inflorescences

axillary 2–4, terminal 1, stalked panicles, open paniculate, terminal panicle 7–14 cm with numerous short fascicles 4–8 mm wide, of 2–5 spikelets;

bracts subtending inflorescence leaflike, broadly attenuate, ± equaling inflorescence, antrorsely scabrous.
Spikelets

bisexual and staminate, few flowered, 3.8–5 mm;

staminate scales narrowly ovate, pistillate scales purple with prominent green keel, broadly ovate, abruptly acuminate.
Achenes

greenish to whitish or sometimes mottled gray, shiny, rounded-trigonous to ± circular, ovoid, 3.4–3.8 × 2.3–2.8 mm, smooth, apex rounded;

hypogynium whitish to pale brown, bluntly 3-angled, low.

Scleria lacustris
Phenology Fruiting fall.
Habitat Marshes, in shallow water
Elevation 0 m (0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; Central America; West Indies; n South America; Africa [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Scleria lacustris is adventive in Florida and was first collected in 1988. It has since been found in additional sites and is becoming locally common (C. C. Jacono 2001). The plant is a coarse sprawling annual that appears to have the potential to be a serious invasive in warmer parts of Florida.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 23, p. 246.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Scleria
Sibling taxa
S. baldwinii, S. ciliata, S. curtissii, S. distans, S. georgiana, S. lithosperma, S. minor, S. muehlenbergii, S. oligantha, S. pauciflora, S. reticularis, S. triglomerata, S. verticillata
Name authority C. Wright: Anales Real Acad. Ci. Méd. Fís. Nat. Habana 8: 152. (1871)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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