70 
CYPERACEAE (SEDGE FAMILY) 
CHUFA 
Cyperus esculéntus, 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 tc 
Florida and Texas; ;, also on the Pacific Coast from California tc 
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 sealy 
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. 
Fic. 35. — Chufa 
(Cyperus esculentus). 
Xt. 
