Scirpus acutus Bigelow
var. occidentalis (S. Watson) Beetle
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Scirpus acutus Bigelowvar. occidentalis (S. Watson) Beetle
=Scirpus acutusCyperaceae (Sedge Family)NativeCommon Bulrush |
August Photo
Plant Characteristics:
Perennial with stout rootstocks and thick brown rhizomes; culms stout,
cylindric, to 2 cm. thick, erect,
to 5 m. tall, rather hard and firm, olive-green; lvs. reduced to basal sheaths
with blades to 8 cm. long, the sheath margins becoming fibrillose; invol. leaf
solitary, terete, shorter than the infl., appearing as a continuation of the
culm; infl. dense capitate to umbellate; spikelets ovate to cylindric, 8-18 mm.
long; scales oblong-ovate, red dotted, viscid-villous above, short awned;
bristles slender, downwardly barbed; style 2-fid or 3-fid; aks. 2-3 mm. long,
lenticular or sometimes triangular.
Habitat:
Occasional, wet places below 5000 ft.; several Plant Communities; s.
Calif.; to B.C., Atlantic Coast. May-August.
Name:
Latin, scirpus, the classical
name. (Munz, Flora
So. Calif. 902). Latin, acutus,
sharp, pointed. (Jaeger 6).
Latin, occidentalis, western.
(Jaeger 170).
General:
Rare in the study area, having only been found only once and this along
Backbay Dr. below the north end of Eastbluff. (my comment). Used in basket making for both
warps and wefts (foundations and wrappings).
Heizer & Elsasser, page not recorded).
Sedges were used by the Indians for the inside of foot coverings to keep
the foot insulated and dry. (lecture
by Charlotte Clarke, author of Useful and
Edible Plants of California, April 1987).
Scirpus species have been known
to cause hay fever and asthma. (Fuller
382). The
Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara area used Scirpus
spp. as the principal material for mats and house thatching; the rhizomes were
also eaten. Poison Oak was treated
by rubbing on dry ashes from burned tule, Scirpus
acutus, or rush Juncus textilis. (Timbrook, J. "Chumash Ethnobotany: A Preliminary
Report". Journal of Ethnobiology. Dec. 1984, 141-169).
The Yokut Indians of the Great Central Valley of California made boats
from Scirpus acutus and S. californicus.
The boat was constructed from three tule bundles well over 16 feet long
each tapered toward both ends. Two bundles would form the sides and were 9 to 11
inches thick when compressed and bound. The
central bundle was 15 inches in diameter at the middle portion.
(Campbell 392). A cosmopolitan genus of about
200 species. (Munz, Flora
So. Calif. 902).
California plants are all or nearly all var.
occidentalis. (Hickman, Ed.
1147, 1358). Roberts in his
1998, A Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Orange County, California, does not list var. occidentalis, only
Scirpus acutus.
When black was wanted in a basket design, the rhizomes of scirpus species
were used. Normally creamy white the rhizomes can be turned black by
soaking 3 to 6 months with acorns, a piece of iron, ashes or walnut husks.
The resulting color is dark brown to black. Shredded tule was used for
baby diapers, bedding and menstrual padding. Skirts were made by Indian
women from bulrush and in
bad weather the men wore shredded tule caps which were
tied around the neck and belted at the waist. Indians who lived near the
coast or marshes and mudflats used bulrush to make large round mud-shoes for
their feet so they could walk without sinking. Duck decoys were made of
tule. (Stevens, Michelle L. “ETHNOECOLOGY OF SELECTED WETLAND PLANTS” FREMONTIA,
A Journal of the California Native Plant Society Vol. 32, No. 4 October 2004
pp. 7-15).
Text Ref:
Hickman, Ed. 1147; Mason 323; Munz, Flora
So. Calif. 902; Roberts 43.
Photo Ref:
Aug 1 86 # 4,5.
Identity: by R. De Ruff,
confirmed by F. Roberts
First Found:
Computer Ref: Plant Data 90.
Have plant specimen.
Last edit 4/6/05.
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August Photo