Bulrush is a

vernacular name A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

for several large

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

grass-like

plants Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclud ...

Sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

family (

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus '' Carex'' ...

): **''

Cyperus ''Cyperus'' is a large genus of about 700 species of sedges, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. Description They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic and growing in still or slow-moving ...

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Scirpus ''Scirpus'' is a genus of grass-like species in the sedge family Cyperaceae many with the common names club-rush, wood club-rush or bulrush (see also bulrush for other plant genera so-named). They mostly inhabit wetlands and damp locations. Tax ...

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Blysmus ''Blysmus'' is a genus of sedges of the family Cyperaceae, found in temperate regions across the Northern Hemisphere. Species Species currently accepted by The Plant List are as follows: *'' Blysmus compressus'' (L.) Panz. ex Link *'' Blysmus m ...

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Bolboschoenus ''Bolboschoenus'' is a genus of plants in the sedge family, of nearly cosmopolitan distribution. Epipaleolithic and Neolithic peoples used ground root tubers of these plants to make the first breads. ; Accepted species * ''Bolboschoenus caldw ...

'' **''

Scirpoides ''Scirpoides'' is a genus of sedges (Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, t ...

'' **''

Isolepis ''Isolepis'' is a cosmopolitan genus of sedge containing around 70 species. ''Isolepis'' is found in cool tropical and temperate climates often in Africa and Australasia. ''Isolepis'' was first described by prolific botanist Robert Brown in ...

'' **''

Schoenoplectus ''Schoenoplectus'' (club-rush ld World species bulrush or tule ew World species is a genus of plants in the sedges with a cosmopolitan distribution. Note that the name bulrush is also applied to species in the unrelated genus ''Typha'' as we ...

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Trichophorum ''Trichophorum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. Plants in this genus are known as deergrasses in Britain but are sometimes known as bulrushes in North America. It contains the following species: * '' Trichophorum ...

'' *

Typhaceae The Typhaceae () are a family of flowering plants, sometimes called the cattail family. The botanical name for the family has been recognized by most taxonomists. Description Members can be recognized as large marsh herbs with alternate two-ran ...

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Typha ''Typha'' is a genus of about 30 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Typhaceae. These plants have a variety of common names, in British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford ...

'' The

Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland The Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) is a scientific society for the study of flora, plant distribution and taxonomy relating to Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The society was founded as the Bota ...

recommends "bulrush" as an English name for plants in the genus ''Typha''. These species are also sometimes known as reedmace, cattails or black paddies. One particular famous story involving bulrushes is that of the

ark of bulrushes The ark of bulrushes was a container which, according to the episode known as the finding of Moses in the biblical Book of Exodus, carried the infant Moses. The ark, containing the three-month-old baby Moses, was placed in reeds by the river ban ...

in the

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from grc, Ἔξοδος, translit=Éxodos; he, שְׁמוֹת ''Šəmōṯ'', "Names") is the second book of the Bible. It narrates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through t ...

. In this story, it is said that the infant Moses was found in a boat made of bulrushes. Within the context of the story, this is probably paper reed (''

Cyperus papyrus ''Cyperus papyrus'', better known by the common names papyrus, papyrus sedge, paper reed, Indian matting plant, or Nile grass, is a species of aquatic flowering plant belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is a tender herbaceous perennia ...

'').

References

{{Plant common name

See also

References