''Trichophorum cespitosum'', commonly known as deergrass or tufted bulrush, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It was originally described by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in 1753 as ''Scirpus cespitosus'', but was transferred to the genus '' Trichophorum'' by the Swedish botanist Carl Johan Hartman in 1849, becoming ''Trichophorum cespitosum''.

Description

''Trichophorum cespitosum'' is a densely tufted perennial sedge often growing gregariously. The wiry stems are round in cross section and slightly ridged, and grow up to long. The leaves are reduced to several pointed sheaths at the base of the stem. The blade of the uppermost sheath is longer than that of the few-flowered spike-rush (''Eleocharis quinqueflora''), an otherwise similar plant, which has a small squarish upper leaf blade. The brownish inflorescence is a very small, narrow terminal head, with the basal pointed, ribbed green

glume In botany, a glume is a bract (leaf-like structure) below a spikelet in the inflorescence (flower cluster) of grass Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family (biology), family of monocotyledonous flow ...

the same length as the rest of the head. The fruit is an ovoid, three-sided nut in diameter.

Distribution and habitat

''Trichophorum cespitosum'' has a circum-boreal montane distribution. In the British Isles it occurs in Scotland, Northwest England, Wales, Southwest England and most of Ireland, thinning out in Southeastern England. It grows in wet acidic soils and peats, in bogs, moorland and wet heaths, persisting even in burnt areas and where grazing pressure by deer is high. It grows from sea level to at least in Britain, above Caenlochan in Angus. It is a common species, growing abundantly in suitable conditions.

Ecology

Flatter

mire A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of Soil organic matter, organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, du ...

s in the Alps and other montane regions are often dominated by deergrass and cottongrass (''Eriophorum angustifolium''), forming a community that turns brown in winter. It only grows at the margins of active bogs, being dominated by

sphagnum moss ''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store water, since ...

(''Sphagnum'' spp.) in the raised central areas, but becomes dominant itself when drainage is undertaken. In wet heathland it may be associated with heather (''Calluna vulgaris'') and

purple moor grass ''Molinia caerulea'', known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid s ...

(''Molinia caerulea''), and provide grazing for deer, cattle and sheep.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q161310, from2=Q21877344 cespitosum Plants described in 1849