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YELLOW NUTSEDGE
- From
southern Canada to northern Argentina.
- United States, except
Wyoming and Montana (Fig. 1).
- Elsewhere in regions with temperate to tropical climates.
Habitat
- Natural habitats, along margins of lakes, rivers, streams, and marshes.
- Disturbed habitats, tolerating a wide range of soils types.
- As a weed in cultivated fields.
Characteristics
-
Tough erect fibrous-rooted perennial, 0.3 to 0.9 m high, reproducing by
seeds and by many deep, very slender rhizomes.
- The rhizomes form weak runners above the ground,
and small tubers or nutlets at the tips of underground stems.
- The tubers are dark, unevenly
globed shaped, 10 to 20 mm long, and edible, tasting somewhat like almonds (Fig. 2).
Economic Importance
-
The tubers contain protein, carbohydrates, sugars, oil and fiber.
They are good for human health, containing high levels of iron and potassium, and no sodium.
The Spanish produce a drink called "horchata" made out of the tubers.
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In the United States, the primary use of the yellow nutsedge as a crop is to attract and feed game, particularly wild turkeys.
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Yellow nutsedge has been planted so that pigs could be turned into the fields to fatten on the tubers.
In the United States, tubers have been used as hog feed in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.
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