Yellow Nutsedge

Yellow Nutsedge

Weed Flora of Mississippi

Family: Cyperaceae

Genus: Cyperus        Species:   esculentus

History: Native to North America and is common throughout most of the United States.It is found worldwide in warm and temperate zones, including most of the Eastern Hemisphere, including southern Europe, Africa and Madagascar, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

Life Cycle: Yellow nutsedge is a perennial plant that reproduces primarily by small underground tubers called outlets that form at the end of underground stems called rhizomes.

Special Characteristics: It commonly grows in many soil textures but is most common on well-drained, sandy soils or damp to wet sites. It is one of the world’s worst agricultural weeds; it is problematic in a wide range of crops, is not well controlled by some common herbicides, and is allelopathic. Yellow nutsedge mainly reproduces via two kinds of underground nut-like tubers. One type germinates immediately, and the other overwinters. Infestations start in wet areas and spread.

Roots: Deep fibrous roots.

Stem: Erect, simple (not branched), hairless and triangular in cross-section.

Leaves: Leaves are basal and alternate. Leaves are three-ranked and mostly clustered at the base of the stem.

Flower: Flowers are straw-colored to golden-brown, in spikelets 5 to 30 mm long. Spikelets are arranged in an umbel-like, open inflorescence.

Seeds / Fruit: Seeds are yellowish-brown, three-angled. Achenes are 1.1 to 1.5 mm long, brown when mature, three-sided, generally elliptic in outline, slightly tapered to the base with a short stalk-like appendage (stipe), and more rounded at the tip.

Interference: Yellow nutsedge is a problem in many agricultural fields and in lawns that have been converted from farmland. It also is a troublesome weed in horticultural and nursery crop production as well as turfgrass and landscapes.