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Weed Identification in Christmas Trees

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Yellow Nutsedge - Cyperus esculentus L.
Home > yellow nutsedge
Life cycle: Rhizomatous perennial sedge.

Leaves: Yellowish green, shiny, grasslike leaves are long and narrow and distinctly ridged along the midvein, and they narrow to a long, sharp point. Leaves are mostly basal and alternate, and they point outward from the stem in three directions.

Stems: Erect, solid, up to 3-foot-tall stems are triangular in cross-section. Plants spread by wiry, scaly rhizomes and nutlike tubers produced at the rhizome tips.

Flowers and fruit: The seedhead consists of numerous yellowish brown spikelets, which occur in a terminal, umbrellalike cluster. Under each seedhead is a whorl of several long, leaflike bracts. The seed is enclosed in a single-seeded, three-angled, yellowish brown fruit with a blunt end.

Reproduction: Tubers, rhizomes and, very rarely, seeds.
Yellow nutsedge.
Patch of yellow nutsedge.
Yellow nutsedge seedling. Yellow nutsedge seedhead.
Yellow nutsedge seedling. Yellow nutsedge seedhead.
Yellow nutsedge stem.
Triangular stem of yellow nutsedge.
The MSU IPM Program maintains this site as an access point to pest management information at MSU. The IPM Program is administered within the Department of Entomology, fueled by research from the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, delivered to citizens through MSU Extension, and proud to be a part of Project GREEEN.
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02/08/08