Suomi
Svenska
Common Club-Rush
Schoenoplectus lacustris
Identify the Common Club-Rush from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.
Coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.
Common Club-Rush is a tall waterside plant that forms wide stands along lakes and slow rivers. It has dark green, smooth, mostly leafless stems and a cluster of small brown flower heads near the tip. It is wind‑pollinated and often mistaken for common reed, but lacks reed’s leafy, jointed stalks.
Did you know?
- Wind‑pollinated; its pollen rides breezes over open water.
- Its tough stems have been used to weave mats and baskets.
About the species
Identification
Tall waterside plant, usually 1–3 m. Stems are round, smooth and stiff, dark green, mostly without leaves, about 0.5–1 cm thick, spongy inside. Leaf blades are usually absent; only brownish bases at the bottom, though in flowing water long flat ribbon‑like floating leaves can appear. At the top is a branched cluster of many small, shiny brown heads, often in little groups, with a long stem‑like leaf just below it that is as long as or longer than the cluster. Small hard three‑sided seeds follow. Differs from common reed by its leafless round stems and small brown heads (reed has many leaves and a big feathery tuft). Flowers in Finland in June–July.
Plant group
Grasses, sedges and rushes
Habitat
water
Flowering
Jun–Jul
About the habitat
Shallow freshwater and slightly brackish shores: lakes, ponds, slow rivers, ditches and river mouths. Often rooted under water to about 2 m deep, forming broad belts. Common in southern and central Finland up to southern Lapland; rarer farther north.
Sources
Photo: Анна Митрошенкова, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6162834079
Text: Pinkka: BIO-503 Suomen kasvisto ja kasvillisuus - Sisävedet: runsasravinteiset järvet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40249
Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40249
Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4rvikaisla
