5. Scleria triglomerata Michx. (tall nut grass,
whipgrass)
Pl. 87 f, g; Map 330
S. nitida Willd.
Plants perennial with short, knotty
rhizomes. Aerial stems usually appearing clustered, 40–100 cm long, erect to
ascending, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Leaf sheaths often narrowly winged or
roughened along the angles, glabrous or more commonly sparsely to densely
hairy, often pale green or tinged with purple, the convex tip opposite the leaf
blade 2–3 mm long, broadly rounded, glabrous or hairy. Leaf blades 1–30 cm
long, 3–9 mm wide, stiff and leathery, glabrous to sparsely hairy, the margins
and main veins frequently roughened. Inflorescences few to several clusters of
spikelets, these arranged in 1–3 headlike masses. Bracts erect to ascending,
0.8–15 cm long. Spikelets 4.5–6.5 mm long, the scales green to purplish brown.
Fruits with the main body 2.0–3.5 mm long at maturity, broadly ovate in
outline, the tip usually with a minute point, the surface smooth or rarely
obscurely undulate, shiny, white, the basal disk bluntly 3-angled, with a hard,
white crust having a densely and finely pebbled or granular texture, lacking
tubercles. May–September.
Scattered nearly throughout Missouri (eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Iowa and Texas; Mexico, Caribbean Islands). Upland prairies, glades, savannas, acid seeps, and dry, rocky upland
forests; also along ditches and in rocky, disturbed areas.
This is the commonest and most robust
species of Scleria in the state. Some botanists have attempted to
segregate plants with pale, hairy sheaths or larger fruits as S. nitida.
Steyermark (1963) further stated that in Missouri this taxon is restricted to
acid seeps and sandstone bluff tops. However, examination of all of the
specimens suggests that neither habitat nor morphology work to separate two
taxa within this variable complex, which agrees with the findings of Fairey (1967)
and Kessler (1987).