Cyperus strigosus
Strawcolored flatsedge, False nutsedge, Strawcolored nutgrass
Cyperus stenolepis Torrey, C. hansenii Britton, Mariscus stenolepis (Torrey) C.B. Clarke, M. strigosus (L.) C.B. Clarke.
Short-lived perennial; culms few or solitary, erect, mostly stout, trigonous, smooth, swollen, and cormlike at the base, 1–9 dm tall, 1–6 mm thick; often flowers the first year.
One to several, crowded toward the base, flat, glabrous or scaberulous at the margins and midrib and becoming more so distally, light green to yellowish green, longer or shorter than the culms, 10–40 cm long, 2–8 (15) mm wide; lower sheaths brown.
Leaflike, 3–6 (10), flat, scaberulous on the margins, lax and spreading, cross ribs may be conspicuous; longer bracts are 1–2 times longer than the inflorescence and up to 5 mm wide.
Umbellate with up to 10 spikelike or headlike clusters, some (or all) clusters sessile, others on elongate, unequal rays to 7 (20) cm long. Spikelets 10–30 flat, elongate, 6–25(50) mm long, 1–2 mm wide, spreading to perpendicular to the elongate rachis.
Somewhat zigzag shaped, slightly angular twisted, broadly hyaline-winged (0.4–0.5 mm wide) at each node, wings clasping the lower part of each achene, sometimes disarticulating at the node just above the lowermost pair of scales.
3–11 per spikelet, 2-ranked, appressed, each scale overlapping the lower half of the next scale, oblong to obovate with a somewhat acute apex, 7–11 nerved, margins stramineous to yellowish or golden brown and narrowly hyaline distally, greenish or paler along the midrib, 3–6 mm long, 1–1.8 mm wide, persistent on the rachilla or deciduous.
10–16, perfect, perianth lacking, stamens 3; anthers 0.5 mm long or less; style deeply trifid, exerted beyond the scale.
Linear-oblong, unequally trigonous, puncticulate, somewhat less stipitate, mucronate, dark purplish brown, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, 3–4 times as long as wide; style somewhat persistent.
Fruiting: July–October.Disturbed soil in wet areas, marshy ground, emergent shorelines, and sandy gravel areas along streams at elevations from sea level to 1600 m. A weed in garden and croplands. Uncommon in the Intermountain Region with collections reported from southwestern Idaho, central and southern Nevada, and Utah. Widespread elsewhere in the United States and southern Canada.
