Spike-Rush

Spike-Rush photos

Family name: Sedge (Cyperaceae)

Scientific Name:

Eleocharis spp.

Common Spike-rush plants
Photo: A J Brown

Status:

Includes mainly Australian natives and one introduced.

Plant Description:

Annual or perennial rush-like plants, often with rhizomatous root systems. Stems are tufted and erect to spreading, from rounded to angular or flattened. Leaves are reduced to smooth, hairless, bladeless, tubular sheaths with a small apical, mucro point.

Flower-head consist of a single and bractless spikelet at the top of each stem. The spikelet is rounded and tapering towards its apex with a few too many flowers arranged spirally. The base of each developing fruit generally supports 6-10 bristles. Fruit is a triangular or lens-shaped nut that is crowned by the persistent enlarged base of the style (the elongated part of the female organ or carpel).

Habitat:

Swamps, lake margins, flood-ways and along watercourses. Permanent or seasonal freshwater environments.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
*Mallee, Loddon Murray, Central and Northern, Wimmera, Western, Gippsland	S0	W2, W3, W4

*generally confined to Murray River environs

Comments:

There are about 10 Spike-rush species occurring in Victoria. The more common and widespread species are Tall Spike-rush (Eleocharis sphacelata), Small Spike-rush (E. pusila), Tuber Spike-rush (E. atricha), Slender Spike-rush (E. gracilis) and Common Spike-rush (E. acutus). Chinese Water Chestnuts are the edible tubers of Eleocharis dulcis. Despite their name, they are actually part of the sedge family (Cyperaceae), rather than the rush family (Juncaceae). They differ from most other sedges in their very reduced leaves and terminal single spikelets without bracts.

Spike-Rush photos

Spike of Common Spike-rush showing anthers Photo: A J Brown	Common Spike-rush flower spike Photo: A J Brown
Common Spike-rush Photo: A J Brown

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