68 



CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY} 



NUT-GRASS 



Cyperus rottindus, L. 

 Other English names: Nut Sedge, Coco Sedge, Coco-grass, Hydra 



Cyperus. 

 Introduced 



Propagates by seeds and by tuber-bear- 



Perennial. 



ing rootstocks. 

 Time of bloom: July to September. 

 Seed-time: August to November. 



Range: Virginia to Kansas, southward to Florida and Texas. 

 Habitat : All soils ; troublesome in cultivated crops, especially in 



cotton fields. 



This pest is said to have been brought into the United States 

 among some garden plants from the West Indies, nearly a century 

 ago, since when it has spread over a very 

 large part of the country where the climate 

 is propitious to it, extending along the 

 coast as far north as New Jersey. It is 

 very difficult to dislodge, experience hav- 

 ing shown that "nothing serves so well to 

 propagate it as to plow and replow, with 

 a view to destroy it," as a planter stated 

 in a letter to Dr. Darlington. The smaller 

 tubers are sometimes shipped, clinging to 

 the roots of garden plants and nursery 

 stock, and the seeds are a common im- 

 purity of southern grass and clover seed 

 and baled hay ; they are hard-coated and 

 pass unharmed through the digestive 

 tracts of cattle and horses, and such 

 manure, without long composting, is a 

 menace to the land where it is spread. 

 (Fig. 34.) 



The fibrous, scaly rootstocks, which are 

 its most mischievous part, are deep-set, 

 first forming by descending from the base 

 of a young plant, to a depth of six inches 

 to a foot or more according to the mellow- 

 FIG. 34. Nut-grass (Cy- ness ^ tne so ^' an< ^ there forming the first 



perus rotundu^. x i. small, round, potato-like tuber, varying 



