70 



CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 



CHUFA 

 Cyperus esculentus, L. 



Other English names: Northern Nut-grass, Yellow Nut-grass, 



Yellow Galingale. 

 Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by tuber-bearing 



rootstocks. 



Time of bloom : July to September. 

 Seed-time: August to November. 

 Range : New Brunswick to Minnesota and Nebraska, southward to 



Florida and Texas ; also on the Pacific Coast from California to 



Alaska. Common in Europe and Asia and in tropical America. 

 Habitat: Moist fields, banks of streams, and ditches. 



In the South this plant is frequently cul- 

 tivated for pasturing and for fattening hogs in 

 autumn, those animals being very fond of its 

 sweet, oily, and fleshy tubers. Unlike those 

 of the preceding species, the tubers are usually 

 clustered very near the parent plant, the scaly 

 rootstocks being shorter and, unless the ground 

 is very soft, not far below the surface. (Fig. 

 35.) 



Culms, stout, fifteen to thirty inches high, 

 three-sided, light yellowish green. Leaves 

 about the same length, one-fourth to one- 

 half inch wide, with heavy mid-vein and 

 slightly roughened edges. The involucre has 

 three to six leaf-like bracts extending much 

 beyond the rays of the umbel, which are often 

 compound. Spikes straw-colored or pale yel- 

 low-brown, the whole plant being conspicuous 

 for its light coloring, plainly visible at a 

 distance among grasses. The scales of the 

 spikelets are oblong-ovate, appressed at the 

 base but loose at the tip, three to five-nerved, 

 with narrow scarious margins. Achenes small, 

 oblong ovoid, three-sided, light yellowish 

 brown. 



35. Chufa 

 .s esculentus). 



