Eleocharis compressaSull.

Compressed spike-rushFlat-stem spike-rushflatstem spikerush

WFO wfo-0000403457 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-10 / obs. 196668360
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Annika Lindqvist
fig. b Annika Lindqvist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117735073
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Henrique Pacheco
fig. c Henrique Pacheco, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 205749964
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Derek
fig. d Derek, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200230001
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. e Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129448739
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Trevor Edmonson
fig. f Trevor Edmonson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 18036550
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Summit Metro Parks
fig. g Summit Metro Parks, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 39396698
Eleocharis compressa, photographed by Nathan Aaron
fig. h Nathan Aaron, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 65382682

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Eleocharis compressa is native: Alabama, Arkansas, British Columbia, Colorado, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Manitoba, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Québec, Saskatchewan, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaArkansasBritish ColumbiaColoradoIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyManitobaMarylandMichiganMinnesotaMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew MexicoNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOklahomaOntarioPennsylvaniaQuébecSaskatchewanSouth DakotaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest VirginiaWisconsin District of Columbia
Native distribution of Eleocharis compressa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
British Columbia BRC
Colorado COL
District of Columbia WDC
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Manitoba MAN
Maryland MRY
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Mexico NWM
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Québec QUE
Saskatchewan SAS
South Dakota SDA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA
Wisconsin WIS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 215 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -12.9 °C -8.7 °C 1.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.1 °C 26.4 °C 32.6 °C
Annual rainfall 811 mm 1,013 mm 1,279 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 103 mm 196 mm 265 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 215 research-grade observations of Eleocharis compressa that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 7 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Eleocharis acuminata (Muhl.) Nees
  • Eleocharis acuminata var. tenerrima Boeckeler
  • Eleocharis acutisquamata Buckley
  • Eleocharis compressa f. compressa
  • Eleocharis elliptica var. compressa (Sull.) Drapalik & Mohlenbr.
  • Scirpus acuminatus Muhl.
  • Trichophyllum acuminatum (Muhl.) House

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.