Scirpus polyphyllusVahl

leafy bulrush

WFO wfo-0000543391 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, 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 polyphyllus, photographed by botanygirl
fig. a botanygirl, CC BY 4.0 / 2013-08-31 / obs. 592171
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by botanygirl
fig. b botanygirl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 592185
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by Tom Field
fig. c Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146527462
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by jrrigby
fig. d jrrigby, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 139328993
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by Tom Field
fig. e Tom Field, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 146527476
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by jrrigby
fig. f jrrigby, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 139329046
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by Sindupa De Silva
fig. g Sindupa De Silva, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82100882
Scirpus polyphyllus, photographed by Sindupa De Silva
fig. h Sindupa De Silva, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82100891

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 24 botanical countries

Regions where Scirpus polyphyllus is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaKentuckyMarylandMassachusettsMississippiMissouriNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVermontVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Scirpus polyphyllus, 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
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Kentucky KTY
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Pennsylvania PEN
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 17 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.

  • Dichromena cymosa (Willd.) J.F.Macbr.
  • Holoschoenus brunneus (Muhl.) Steud.
  • Phaeocephalum cymosum (Willd.) House
  • Rhynchospora cymosa (Willd.) Muhl. ex Elliott
  • Schoenus cymosus Willd.
  • Scirpus americanus (Boeck.) T.Koyama
  • Scirpus brunneus Muhl.
  • Scirpus brunneus var. crispus Torr.
  • Scirpus brunneus var. viviparus (Pursh) Torr.
  • Scirpus cymosus (Willd.) Spreng.
  • Scirpus cymosus Willd.
  • Scirpus exaltatus Pursh
  • Scirpus exaltatus var. viviparus Pursh
  • Scirpus polyphyllus f. macrostachys (Boeckeler) Fernald
  • Scirpus polyphyllus f. polyphyllus
  • Scirpus polyphyllus f. viviparus (Pursh) Beetle
  • Scirpus polyphyllus var. macrostachys Boeckeler

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.