A Landscape Problem Lurking Just Under the Surface

Nuts are a popular snack for people and many animals. In panhandle Florida many can be produced in home gardens and orchards.

Wild hickories and oaks annually produce a bumper nut crop for the squirrels, deer and other wildlife which are dependent on the fat and nutrients to make it past the cold season.

Pecans and peanuts are both available fresh for the picking or purchasing, as are chestnuts for those who can handle the burrs containing the nuts. However, there is one exotic nut not on any list of popular fall delicacies.

Purple nutsedge, Cyperus rotundus, grows from every possible sunny location with soil.  This non-native plant is a rapidly spreading perennial which will take every opportunity to colonize new locations.

Rhizomes and bulb-like nutlets branch out in all directions from this sedge. They easily detach if the plant is pulled from the ground.

The identifier purple is in its name because there is a purple-tinged section of this sedge where it emerges from the ground.  The plant is sometimes referred to as purple nut grass because of its long narrow leaves and its erect growth pattern originating from a nutlike basal bulb.

There are other sedges in north Florida, but only yellow nutsedge is identified by a specific color.  It is sometimes called chufa and is a popular feed for both wild turkeys and turkey hunters.

The dark green, smooth leaves blend in easily with many turf grasses during the spring and summer.  Beneath the soil’s surface and out of sight, the root system grows in every direction.

Purple nutsedge’s roots are a series of spreading rhizomes and tubers or bulbs identified as nutlets.   Each nutlet sprouts a new bunch of grass-like leaves and continues growing the rhizomes.

The dense population of this sedge quickly crowds out most other plants, but especially turf and forage grasses.  It can reach a height of 18 inches on its triangle shaped stem. 

The root system’s design assures this plant’s continued success.  If pulled, the rhizomes break off, leaving a large number of nutlets to develop and emerge at a later date.

If plowed or tilled, the nutlets are detached and spread to new and inviting locations.  Many times, nutlets lodge in tillage equipment only to shake loose and be deposited in un-colonized locations.

Most herbicides have little effect on this sedge’s hardy root system.  Selected pre-emergent herbicides will prevent many of the nutlets from germinating in spring if properly applied.

Sandy soils in Florida provide an ideal growing environment for purple nutsedge.  The occasional periods of saturation from storms do not deter this plant’s rapid growth and expansion to new areas, but it will not prosper in heavy shade.

Purple nutsedge’s extreme competitive nature is a heavy consumer of plant nutrients. It robs rivals of important compounds necessary for their survival, and it produces an allelopathic substance which is toxic to some plants. 

Purple nutsedge is found in many locales in North America where the environment is hospitable to its growth.  The autumn cool and shorter days send this exotic pest into dormancy, but the seeds of next year’s crop remain.

As a result the landscape’s problems are just under the surface and waiting to emerge.