Vascular Plants of North Carolina
Account for Twig-rush - Cladium mariscoides   (Muhlenberg) Torrey
Members of Cyperaceae:
Members of Cladium with account distribution info or public map:
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Section 5 » Order Cyperales » Family Cyperaceae
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Author(Muhlenberg) Torrey
DistributionIn 4 disjunct areas: northern Mountains, Sandhills, and southern outer Coastal Plain and northern outer Coastal Plain.

Newf. to Sask. south as scattered occurrences to GA, northwestern FL, southern MS, and eastern TX.
AbundanceRare in the northern Mountains and in the Sandhills; uncommon in the outer Coastal Plain. Usually occurs as large populations. The NCNHP moved the species from Significantly Rare to Watch List in 2021.
HabitatShallow water of impoundments, reservoirs, beaver ponds, depression ponds, montane seepage areas, montane fens. In some areas, such as the Sandhills, it is found in strongly acidic soils, but in other places it favors alkaline conditions, such as in some montane fens and in some coastal marshes.
PhenologyFlowering and fruiting July-September.
IdentificationThis sedge looks most like a very tall Juncus [rush], as the culms and leaves are rounded or rather involute. But Juncus flowers all possess 6 sepal-like flower segments, whereas Cladium does not. In the field, Cladium mariscoides does not look at all like C. jamaicense.
Taxonomic CommentsNone (surprisingly), though the highly fragmented range and disjunct populations are quite odd and worthy of further study.

Other Common Name(s)Smooth Sawgrass, Fin-sedge. More references call this as Smooth Sawgrass, but that name causes some confusion with C. jamaicense, usually known as just Sawgrass. As it is so different from that species, also seemingly in separate genera, Twig-rush is used by enough entities to be adopted here.
State RankS3
Global RankG5
State StatusW1
US Status
USACE-agcpOBL link
USACE-empOBL link
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B.A. SorrieMoore County, same data. MoorePhoto_natural
B.A. SorrieMoore County, 2014, Reservoir Lake Greenway, NE side of lake. MoorePhoto_natural
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