CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 67 
the upper ones often inflated and enclosing the base of the spike; 
blades rough, two to six inches long. Spikes two to four inches in 
length, the spikelets in threes with lemmas awned, those of the 
central, fertile flower broader, with hairy margins, the awn nearly 
an inch long; the lateral ones shorter. 
The weed should be suppressed by cutting so frequently as to 
prevent seed development. 
LOW GALINGALE 
Cyperus didndrus, Torr. 
Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: August to October. 
Seed-time: September to November. 
Range: New Brunswick to western Ontario and Minnesota, south- 
ward to the Carolinas and Kansas. 
Habitat: Wet grasslands and along streams, ponds, and ditches. 
A meadow overgrown with Galingale is not of much value. 
This one is not an aggressive weed, merely coming in where the 
larger, more nutritious grasses have been drowned out. As forage 
it is nearly worthless. It is a small plant, varying from three 
inches to a foot in height, most commonly about six inches, with 
tufted stems or culms, very slender, three-sided, leafy at base, and 
deep green. Leaves hardly a tenth of an inch wide, smooth; at the 
summit of the stem are three slim, spreading, involucral leaves, or 
bracts, subtending the flower-heads; these are a cluster of thin, 
flattened spikelets, usually about a half-inch long and either sessile 
on the end of the stem or clustered on the tips of two or three short, 
unequal rays. Scales ovate, obtuse, one-nerved, green with pur- 
plish brown margins or sometimes all brown; stamens two and 
style two-parted, the cleft tip exserted far beyond the points of the 
scales. Seeds flattened, oblong lens-shape, dull gray. 
Means of control 
Drain the land and put under intensive cultivation for a season 
in order to cause dormant seeds to germinate and be destroyed ; 
reseed heavily with good grasses or clover. 
