Community Contributor

BuzzFeed

Following on from the Gigantic Grass quiz here's your chance to turn your skills to the wonderful world of sedges, rushes and their allies. Even when you know a plant, can you identify it from just one fragment? All information from the newly released Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes, available from The Species Recovery Trust with all proceeds to saving rare species.

Sedge And Rushes Quiz

These have had a bit of a taxonomic ride recently, but seem to have settled down. All of them have inflorescences resembling spikey pineapples. This one is rather smaller and grows in acidic bog flushes.

Carex demissa - Common Yellow Sedge

This is a small sedge that lives in acid mires. But what is it called?

Has glaucous (grey/blue) underside to leaves. Fruits very black towards end of summer.

Carex flacca - Glaucous Sedge

A common site on calcareous grassland

Carex otrubae - False Fox-sedge

A large sedge with a strikingly triangular stem...

Has a superficial resemblance to the last one, but fruits smaller and definitely a bit star shaped!

Carex echinata - Star Sedge

Back to the bog!

Carex panicea - Carnation Sedge

Just one more boggy one...

Carex pulicaris - Flea Sedge

I lied about they're only being one more which lives in bogs...

Probably the commonest Sedge of heathlands, particularly lowland.

Carex binervis - Green-ribbed Sedge

A striking site in heathlands in early summer...

You can confirm it by the leaves, which are long and subtly paler on their top surfaces

Carex nigra - Common Sedge

Many flattened fruits, the colour sort of gives it away...

Several cottony heads, one of which is on a longer stem

Eriophorum angustifolium - Common Cottongrass

Now some Sedge allies (loose members of the sedge family)

Long bract above inflorescence (short bract would be cernua)

Isolepis setacea - Bristle Club-rush

A funny little sedge ally

Eriophorum vaginatum - Hare's-tail Cottongrass

The Don King of grasses...

Eleocharis - Spikerush

Another spikey bog-dweller...

Not easy! You may have spotted that it was growing in an acidic bog, which helps narrow it down. It also grows in loose tufts, but these can be hard to see when there's lots of plants. Beyond that you have to look at the glumes, which is pretty hard from a photo!

Eleocharis quinqueflora - Few-flowered Spike-rush

Fancy taking it to species level?

Juncus bulbosus - Bulbous Rush

Ok, on to Rushes. Flowers only to start with. This one has a habit of turning viviparous towards the end of the year.

Lovely compact fruit right through the year, and the stem is ridged, but only below the flower.

Juncus conglomeratus - Compact Rush

Couple of clues here..

The grasses originally evolved from monocot plants similar to Lilies, and flowers like these strikingly show that evolutionary link. Although they are wind-pollinated the flowers are almost showy enough to attract insects.

Juncus squarrosus - Heath Rush

Bit of a stunner!

Grey ridged thin leaves, and a spray of flowers falling out

Juncus inflexus - Hard Rush

Again, a couple of clues here...

Very hairy, smallish, very common in good quality grassland

Luzula campestris - Field Wood-rush

And onto the wider members of the Rush family...

Southern Wood-rush is similar but the inflorescence typically droops to one side

Luzula pilosa - Hairy Wood-rush

In a wood...

Rolls off the tongue... Here it is next to normal Heath Wood-rush showing ho compact the head is.

Luzula multiflora ssp congesta - Dense-headed Heath Wood-rush

On a heath....

Beautifully fine leaves in tussocks, and you can just about see the spaced out flowers

Carex remota - Remote Sedge

Ok, now some 'whole plant' shots. Sedges first...

You may have spotted the Salad Burnet, showing it is chalk/calcareous. It is the most commonly found yellow coloured Sedge is this environment, and can be further confirmed by the club-shaped male inflorescence.

Carex caryophyllea - Spring-sedge

I'm not going to give you the habitat for this one, but there's two very good indicator species in the shot

Wonder how many of you fell for calling in Glaucous Sedge? Carnation is equally glaucous (a blue grey shade of green) on both sides, so appears extremely glaucous from the top. Glaucous Sedge is mainly glaucous on the underleaf.... (still following that?)

Quite a distinctive colour on this one...

The largest of the native sedges, and the most annoying if it's in your garden!

Carex pendula - Pendulous Sedge

No clues here....

The keen eyed among you may have spotted the Tormentil and Matgrass, confirming this as acid grassland. Once you're there, it is really the only commonly found light green coloured sedge, but is further confirmed by the stems lying prostrate, looking like they've rather given up the will to stay upright. If you then rub your fingers up the stem you'll find the top section just below the fruit is rough. And that's magic...

Carex pilulifera - Pill Sedge

Bit harder, try and work out the habitat first

Lovely rich dark green colour, w-shaped cross section to leaves

Up on the moors....

Eriophorum vaginatum- Hare's-tail Cottongrass

Ok, some sedge allies now....

Needly leaves with a long terminal bract (cernua would be much shorter)

In a bog, near a log...

Clumps go very yellow towards end of summer, stems are ridged with white grooves.

Trichophorum cespitosum - Deergrass

Back into the dry (-er) for this nice clumpy one

Some Rushes..... This one does a very good impression of a grass though.

Quite easy to muddle up with Soft Rush. The heads are more compact, and is the top photo is seen growing in damp heath, where you'd be unlikely to find Soft Rush, unless the landowner had been up to something naughty...

A bit harder - the habitat might help?

An incredibly highly evolved Rush. You can see in this pic how some of the upright leaves have been grazed off, but the prostrate ones are unaffected, allowing it to thrive in grazed environments. It also has specialised grooved leaves, allowing it to survive in much dryer soils than many other rushes.

Easy-peasy (well, hopefully)

Bit hard from a photo, but the smallish size and big red knobs on the end of the leaves point to campestris (tee-hee)

And some Luzulas (Luzulae?) to round off the whole plants section

Luzula sylvatica - Great Wood-rush

In a damp Dartmoor wood...

Ok, now you're warmed up it's time to do it off just a bit of a plant. And they're all muddled up from here on...

The top third of the leaf has this unusual structure called a trigonous tip, where it forms a solid triangular cross-section

The definitive trigonous tip. Found in bogs.

This in theory is one of the easiest sedges to identify - it has hairy leaves, stems and fruits, and is called Hairy. Except sometimes it doesn't have any hairs. How helpful is that? This version tends to pop up in very wet meadows. Maybe one day it will be declared a sub-species; Carex hirta ssp. baldense

Carex hirta - Hairy Sedge

A sedge. But which one?

Continuous pith. You can actually run your thumb up and remove it all, but that's actually taking the pith...I'm here all week

Juncus effusus - Soft-rush

A pillar of pith (sounds like an early Genesis album)

Yes indeedy. Deergrass stems are not only ridged but the grooves of the ridges are white, giving it a slightly stripy look. (Not that you can particularly see that from this photo). The inflorescence is rather more enclosed by its glumes than the Eleocharis's are.

Ooo, tough one...

Nit-grass

Bog-sedge

Rock-sedge

Rare Spring-sedge

You are the ruler of all the rushes. A sultan of sedges. A leader of Luzula. An emperor of Eleogiton. Etc....

Greater Tussock-sedge

About BuzzFeed Community

Community Brand Guidelines

BuzzFeed Community

Sorry, this content is <i>no longer</i> supported.

BuzzFeed Community Guidelines

BuzzFeed Community Leaderboard

BuzzFeed News has breaking stories and original reporting on politics, world news, social media, viral trends, health, science, technology, entertainment, and LGBTQ issues.

All the best animals on the internet. The snuggle is real.

BuzzFeed has breaking news, vital journalism, quizzes, videos, celeb news, Tasty food videos, recipes, DIY hacks, and all the trending buzz you’ll want to share with your friends. Copyright BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.

BuzzFeed News | Breaking News | Original Reporting | News Analysis

Animal Pictures and Videos - Adorably from BuzzFeed

Name

Thanks for subscribing!

Stay up to date with our latest BuzzFeed video. Enter your email to subscribe!

Oops! Upload an image or add text to submit.

BuzzFeed has the hottest, most social content on the web. We feature breaking buzz and the kinds of things you'd want to pass along to your friends.

Sedge And Rushes Quiz

Share This Article