great bulrush

noun

: any of several large plants of the genus Scirpus: such as

a

: a tall Eurasian sedge (S. lacustris) with naked terete stems and a compound umbel of numerous capitate spikes

b

: a bulrush (S. validus) of tropical America and southern U.S. with a stout scaly reddish rhizome, thick pliable culm, and spikelets in close fascicles or glomerules

also : a bulrush chiefly of northern North America that is a variety (S. validus creber) of the above distinguished especially by lax panicles

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