Shiny Bog-Rush

Scientific Name:

Schoenus nitens

Status:

Native to Australia, New Guinea and South America.

Plant Description:

Perennial sedge with a slender creeping rhizome. Stems rigid and grooved, from 3-37 cm tall and 0.5-1 mm wide. Leave blades to 16 cm long, sheaths red-brown, smooth and shining. Flower-heads loosely hemispherical or reduced to a single spikelet, 0.2-1 cm in diameter with the lowest flower bract to 6 cm long.

Spikelets 3-5 mm long with 4-7, red-brown to dark yellow-brown, glumes and 2-3 flowers. Fruit a triangular nut, 1.1-1.6 mm long, subtended by 6 feather-like bristles.

Habitat:

Common along the Victorian coastline, growing in damp areas behind sand dunes. Also found fringing salt lakes and brackish swamps across Western Victoria.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Wimmera, Western, *Gippsland	S0, S1, S2	W2, W3

*near coastal only

Comments:

There are more than 20 Bog-rush species in Victoria. Many occupy seasonally wet places in the environment, including sandy heaths. Common Bog-rush (Schoenus apogon) is one example.

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