Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also moist to wet wildflower gardens.

Availability: Grown by enthusiasts and occasionally by native plant nurseries.

Description: Small to medium herbaceous wildflower.

Dimensions: About 6-12 inches in height; to 2 feet when in flower. Spreading from underground stems (rhizomes) and forming small open patches.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Range: Southeastern United States west to Texas and south to the Monroe County Keys; Bermuda, West Indies, Mexico and Central America. In the Monroe County Keys, apparently disjunct from Miami-Dade County to Bahia Honda, Big Pine Key and nearby islands.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

 Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.

 Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.

Habitats: Pinelands, marshes and wet prairies.

Soils: Wet to moist, periodically inundated freshwater or brackish soils.

Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.

Salt Water Tolerance: Moderate; tolerates brackish water or occasional inundation by salt water.

Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.

Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.

Light Requirements: Full sun.

Flower Color: White bracts with green tips.

Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy inflorescence.

Flowering Season: Spring-fall.

Fruit: Inconspicuous achene.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed and divisions.

Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's Flower Friday page. See a 2018 post on the Treasure Coast Natives blog on how this sedge changes throughout the day in order to attract insect pollinators.