Foxes Lair
  • Home
  • About
    • About Foxes Lair
    • History
    • Landscape and Soils
  • Things To Do
    • Scavenger hunt
    • Picnic Spots
    • Walking Tracks
    • Visit the Arboretum
    • Geocaching and Orienteering
    • Ride Your Bicycle
  • Things To See
    • Birds
    • Wildflowers
    • Trees in the Narrogin district
    • Narrogin spiders scorpions ticks
    • Vertebrates
    • Fungi and lichens
  • Other Places to Visit
    • FAMILY bush attractions
    • WILDLIFE bush attractions
    • WILDFLOWER bush attractions
    • all reserves
  • 1Foxypress
    • Foxypress
    • Vanishing Farms
  • Foxes Lair seasonal guide
  • Contact

Narrogin Sedges and Rushes

7/2/2023

 
Sedges and rushes  are not the most exciting plants in our bush, but they are an important part. These plants protect the soil from erosion and are important habitat plants for insects, spiders, larger animals, and birds. They become obvious on misty mornings when each one becomes a dewy spider palace. Before European settlement, these plants were habitat and food for numerous emus, small rodents and marsupials, which are locally extinct. Rushes and sedges are still important habitat in wetlands. Western Grey Kangaroos and even foxes nibble sedge leaves.
Picture
Tent web spider in Lepidosperma costale sedge in Foxes Lair
PicturePhragmites australis flowering at Gnarojin Park
​I am writing this blog for myself because descriptions and common names for this group are confusing.

A commonly used rhyme to distinguish between grasses, sedges, and rushes is.
“Sedges (Cyperaceae) have edges, rushes (Juncaceae)  are round, grasses (Poaceae) have knee joints all the way to the ground”.
This rhyme is not useful in WA.

Does it matter if you can't tell the difference? Occasionally yes when weeds are involved. A recent example was a decision to replace Bull Rushes in Narrogin Creek with Common Reed Phragmites Australis, which is an introduced weed. Phragmites is certainly impressive and probably isn’t a problem there apart from blocking the creek, but it kills adjoining plants and is an aggressive weed in coastal wetlands.

PictureA narrow-leaved sedge
Here are my local rules of thumb.

Grasses (Poaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae) and southern rushes (Anarthriaceae and Restionaceae) are all wind pollinated monocotyledons, which grow as annuals or clumping perennials. Perennial plants spread by horizontal underground roots called rhizomes.
​
There are lots of native and introduced grasses around, which can be easily identified  by their hollow stems and stem joints called nodes.

Picture
Typical grass features
PictureTasting result = blah
​Sedges and rushes don’t have nodes, usually have solid pithy stems, and their leaves arise from a rhizome near the ground. Wetland species commonly called rushes may actually be sedges or grasses. For example, Bull Rush or Cumbungi / Typha species are wetland grasses. Cumbungi is a bush tucker plant, which I decided to taste recently in the spirit of citizen science. Chewing a peeled rhizome was less than successful, so I cooked some in the microwave. Result: Texture = rope, taste = blah! Perhaps I should have collected my sample in the growing season and not from a roadside ditch. When I first came to Narrogin, Cumbungi groves formed wonderful bird nesting areas in Railway Dam. Our drying climate has almost eliminated them now.

Picture
Bull Rush/Cumbungi Typha orientalis
Picture
1991 Bull Rush grove at Railway Dam
Picture
2023 same spot at Railway Dam
PictureJuncus acutus Railway Dam
Locally, the classic round, smooth-leaved rushes are mostly weeds. Toad Rush  Juncus bufonius is a tiny annual weed which was a problem in wet areas in crops before no-till farming.
Spiny Rush Juncus acutus is an introduced spiny weed, which infests our damp waterways and dams. Despite this it is useful for reducing erosion in wet salty areas, and as wildlife habitat.
​

​Sedges may have flat or angled leaves (‘edges”) or not. I have noticed that flat-leaved species tend to be larger plants, which occur more often in winter wet/summer dry areas on slopes and flats. Flowers are often surrounded by spiky bracts and each produces a single small nut.
Picture
Broad-leaved sedge on winter-wet sand over clay valley at Quinns Block
Picture
Lepidosperma tubercalatum
Picture
Lepidosperma brunonium flowering July
PictureNarrow leaved Lepidosperma species

Schoenus species are small narrow-leaved sedges. Ground-hugging Schoenus calcaratum would be a delightful addition to the native garden.
Picture
Lawn-like Schoenus calcaratum
Picture
Rhizomes and shoots
Picture
Plant dries out over summer
A special group In southwestern WA is called southern rushes. Unlike sedges and rushes, they are dioecious (have male and female plants). There are two families, Anarthriaceae (mainly near to the coast), and (local) Restionaceae.
Restionaceae are funky mat-like plants with round green to grey-green stems (culms),and brownish scale leaves, which often occur in patches in open kwongan or woodland. Being very tough plants which can withstand short-term waterlogging then drought, they are often found on open gravel, sand,or sand over clay.
​
Lepidobolus species have curly snake-like culms
Picture
Lepidobolus chaetocephalus
Picture
L. preissanus on riverside sand over clay flat
Picture
Lepidobolus preissianus
Desmocladus species have branched culms and female plants with leaf sheaths that sprout clusters of short stalks each with a single flower, which make them look like branched leaves.
Picture
Female Desmocladus fasciculatus
Picture
Male Desmocladus asper
Picture
Hare orchids in a Desmocladus asper patch

    Author

    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair 

    Categories

    All
    Animals Other
    Birds
    Disorders Plant Animal
    Fungi Lichens
    History
    Insects Bugs Other Arthropods
    Landscapes Soils
    Other Reserves And Places
    Reptiles
    Spiders Other Arachnids
    Tree
    Walks Other Facilities
    Wasp
    Wildflowers Orchids
    Wildflowers Other Summer Autumn
    Wildflowers Other Winter Spring
    Wildflowers Parasitic

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    January 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    May 2012
    March 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    April 2011

© 2015 All Rights Reserved. Doug Sawkins, Australia.