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Plant · P-887
Softstem Bulrush
Schoenoplectus tabernaemontani
Softstem Bulrush is the reed that does the heavy lifting in a constructed wetland, its dense rhizome mat and the microbial film growing on it stripping nutrients and settling sediment out of slow-moving water. It is also a genuine food plant: the rhizome boils down to a sweet, translucent liquor like barley water, and the seed roasts and grinds into a nutty cereal meal. It needs standing water or saturated soil year-round and dies quickly if the bed dries out, but it tolerates brackish water and grows from the subarctic to the tropics. One catch - because it pulls metals and contaminants out of dirty water so well, anything harvested for eating has to come from clean water, not from a bed doing the filtering.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 4–9
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Wet
Vertical layer
Aquatic- Soil pH
- 6–8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 4–8 ft
- Mature spread
- 3–4 ft
- Plant spacing
- 12–15 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
American Lotus
Nelumbo lutea
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Blue Flag Iris
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Blue Flag Iris is a rhizomatous perennial of marshes, pond margins and wet meadows, grown for its blue to violet flowers from May into August…
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Bulrush
Schoenoplectus acutus
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Cattail
Typha latifolia
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Lotus
Nelumbo nucifera
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Mosquito Fern
Azolla filiculoides
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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