Soft-stem Bulrush, Great Bulrush

I've only seen this in the wild and it is beautiful. It grows all over North America except far northeast Canada in marshes, swamps, alon...Read Moreg bodies of water and water courses, and wet meadows and spreads a lot by underground stems. It grows in fresh and brackish water, tolerating a good level of salt, and in acid or alkaline conditions. It is useful for wildlife as cover and a food source for wetland birds and muskrats. Native Americans used the leaves and stalks to weave mats, baskets and bags, and they ate the roots, young shoots, and seed. The plants are deer resistant. North Creek Nursery in southeast PA sells small plants in flats as do some other native plant nurseries. This can be used for a wet soil landscape as a massing. I've seen it growing around retaining ponds in developments to catch water overflow with other wetland plants including cattails.

Another scientific name is Scirpus validus from Latin while the new name is Greek. New botanists have separated this new genus of Schoenoplectus out of Scirpus.