Eleocharis nigrescens(Nees) Kunth

black spikerush

WFO wfo-0000405381 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. a Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-12 / obs. 163642129
Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. b Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163642160
Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. c Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163642185
Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. d Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163642206
Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. e Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163642237
Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. f Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163642258
Eleocharis nigrescens, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. g Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163642278

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
777816
Filed as
Eleocharis nigrescens (Nees) Kunth
Det. by
D. A. Simpson 1996-01-01
Collected
M. A. S. Costa 1995-01-17
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Eleocharis nigrescens is native: Central African Republic, Chad, Kenya, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, South Carolina, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Panamá, Paraguay, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela Central African RepublicChadKenyaMalawiSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweFloridaMexico GulfMexico SouthwestSouth CarolinaBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicJamaicaPanamáParaguayTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela
Native distribution of Eleocharis nigrescens, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Jamaica JAM
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Central African Republic CAF AFRICA
Chad CHA
Kenya KEN
Malawi MLW
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Southwest MXS
South Carolina SCA

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.

Also published as 5 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 hildebrandtii Boeckeler
  • Eleocharis perrieri Cherm.
  • Isolepis nigrescens (Nees) Steud.
  • Scirpidium nigrescens Nees
  • Scirpus nigrescens (Nees) Salzm. ex Steud.

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.