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How to Manage Pests

Identification: Weed Photo Gallery

Yellow nutsedge

Scientific name: Cyperus esculentus (Family Cyperaceae)

Life stages of Yellow nutsedge Flower Young plant Tubers

Click on image to enlarge

DESCRIPTION:

Yellow nutsedge is a perennial weed in the sedge family that superficially resembles a grass. Leaves of sedges are thicker and stiffer than most grasses and are V-shaped in cross-section and arranged in sets of three at the base; grass leaves are opposite in sets of two. Stems are triangular in cross-section whereas grass stems are hollow and round. Yellow nutsedge can be distinguished from purple nutsedge by its tubers or "nutlets." Tubers of yellow nutsedge are produced singly on rhizomes, mostly in the upper foot of soil, while purple nutsedge tubers are produced in chains, several on a single rhizome. Yellow nutsedge has light brown flowers and seed. Yellow nutsedge resembles green kyllinga but green kyllinga has no underground tubers and has green rather than yellow flowers.

See UC IPM's Nutsedge Pest Note for more information.

Sedge ID illustration.


Statewide IPM Program, Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California
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For noncommercial purposes only, any Web site may link directly to this page. FOR ALL OTHER USES or more information, read Legal Notices. Unfortunately, we cannot provide individual solutions to specific pest problems. See How to manage pests, or in the U.S., contact your local Cooperative Extension office for assistance. /PMG/WEEDS/yellow_nutsedge.html revised: March 26, 2008. Contact webmaster.