SCIENTIFIC NAME: Scirpus atrovirens
COMMON NAMES: Dark Green Bulrush, Green Bulrush, Common Bulrush
BLOOM TIME: June, July, Aug
PLANT PROFILE:
- Sedge is 2½-4 ft. tall, erect and unbranched.
- Leaf blades are droopy up to 1 in. long & ½ in. wide.
- Flowers have 1-3 spikelets on stems, with about 17-25 dark brown balls.
- Adapts to many soils.
- Habitat: wet prairies, marshes & ditches.
- Common in Illinois where it is native.
INSECT/ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
- A leaf beetle, a weevil, & a billbug feed on Dark Green Bulrush.
- Larvae of leaf-miner moths, two-striped Bulruashes also eaten by Grasshoppers, Long-tailed Meadow Katydid, Short-winged Meadow Katydids, & semi-aquatic leaf beetles & seed bug, Cymus angustatus, plant, bug Teratocoris discolor, & aphids.
- Seeds & seed heads are eaten by numerous species of ducks, rails, & wetland birds.
- Canada Goose & Trumpeter Swan feed on foliage.
- The importance of bulrushes as a food source varies with the species of bulrush and its abundance.
- Muskrats eat the rootstocks & culms, while Meadow Voles occasionally eat the seeds.