Scirpus expansusFernald

woodland bulrush

WFO wfo-0000537887 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 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.

Scirpus expansus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. a Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-18 / obs. 198936452
Scirpus expansus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. b Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198936509
Scirpus expansus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. c Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198936146
Scirpus expansus, photographed by Michael J. Papay
fig. d Michael J. Papay, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198936365

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 25 botanical countries

Regions where Scirpus expansus is native: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Nova Scotia, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaConnecticutGeorgiaIndianaKentuckyMaineMarylandMassachusettsMichiganNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNova ScotiaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Scirpus expansus, 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
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Georgia GEO
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Nova Scotia NSC
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

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 6 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.

  • Scirpus expansus f. bissellii (Fernald) Fernald
  • Scirpus expansus f. expansus
  • Scirpus expansus f. globulosus Fernald
  • Scirpus microcarpus var. bissellii (Fernald) House
  • Scirpus sylvaticus f. bissellii (Fernald) D.S.Carp.
  • Scirpus sylvaticus var. bissellii Fernald

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.