Brown Galingale

Brown galingale is an annual species, and germinates in early summer (3) when the seed-bank is exposed by retreating water levels (6). In Britain, flowers, which are wind-pollinated, are produced from July to September, and fruit is set soon after flowering (6). Whilst most seeds probably do not disperse far, dispersal by floodwater along river valleys is likely, and seeds have been found in mud attached to birds (6). The life-cycle can be completed within just 4 months (6), and it seems that the seeds are able to lie dormant in the soil for some time, as germination has been reported after disturbance of the ground several years after the species has disappeared from a site (3).

Five of the sites where this species is found receive a level of protection as Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs); one site is a designated National Nature Reserve (NNR). Conservation management has been successful at some sites; at a site in Surrey, willows were cleared in 1993 and brown galingale plants reappeared the following year, after an absence of 5 years (6). Plantlife has incorporated this species into its Back from the Brink Programme; it is also included in English Nature's Species Recovery Programme (5).

Brown galingale is a small tufted sedge, with three-angled stems that bear narrow, dull grey-green leaves (2). The flowers are tiny and covered by bracts (known as glumes), which are brown, hence the name, brown galingale (7).

Grows on open, damp peat or on gravel or sand at the edge of ponds and ditches (3), which are exposed during summer when the water level decreases (2). Typical habitats supporting this species have a long history of grazing by livestock, which maintains open conditions (3).

Brown galingale has always been rare in Britain, having only ever been recorded from 13 sites in England (6), including one introduced site in London (3). Most records are focused around the River Thames and the River Avon, with additional sites in Somerset, Dorset and the Weald (6). It has also been found in Jersey. This species has declined by around 50%; since 1990 it has been recorded from just 6 sites in England (6). It persists at sites in Somerset, south Hampshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Middlesex (6). Elsewhere, it occurs throughout most of Europe, as well as in Asia, North Africa, Madeira, Tenerife (3), Canada, and it is rare in the eastern USA (6).

Classified as Vulnerable in Great Britain and fully protected by Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981 (3).

Potential threats at present include the loss of ponds, land reclamation, drainage, and gravel extraction (6).

A native of temperate Eurasia, Cyperus fuscus is intermittently adventive and locally established 35°–45° N latitude. The report from New York (M. L. Fernald 1950) is based on a misidentification of C. diandrus (R. S. Mitchell and G. C. Tucker 1997).

Annual, 10-30 cm, forming small tufts. Stem 1-1.5 mm diam., trigonous, smooth. Leaves basal, shorter than stem; sheaths 20-40 mm, brown or reddish brown, mouth margin concave; ligule c. 0.7 mm, scarious, brown, arch of attachment as high as wide or higher; blades 2-3 mm wide, flat or keeled, margins smooth, apex long, trigonous, acute, scabrous. Inflorescence an irregular, spreading multiple spike, primary branches often up to 30 mm, with tubular prophyll, ending into cluster of to c. 50 spikes; lowest 2-3 bracts foliose, 3-10 (20) cm, sheath-less, margins and midnerve below scabrous, base with scarious margins. Spikes 3-15 x 1.5-2 mm, compressed, tight, with 10-40 glumes; rachis laterally compressed or quadrangular, brown or, usually, dark reddish brown, shiny, almost straight, internodes c. 0.5 mm; glumes 1-1.3 mm, cymbiform, mucronate, sides wide, scarious, usually dark reddish brown, basal margins protruding, scarious. Stamens 2; stigmas 3, sometimes 2. Nut c. 0.8 mm, ellipsoid, trigonous or convex, lateral angles sharp, yellow-brown, very finely reticulate.

Herbs, annual, cespitose. Culms trigonous, 2–30 cm × 0.6–1.1 mm, glabrous. Leaves flat, 4–10 cm × 2–4 mm. Inflorescences: rays 1–3, 0.2–1.5 cm; 2d order rays present in robust plants, to 5 mm; bracts 2–3, longest erect, others spreading, 1–20 cm × 1.5–3 mm. Spikelets 3–12, narrowly ellipsoid, flattened, 3–7 × 0.9–1.2 mm; floral scales 8–12(–16), laterally purplish brown, medially greenish yellow, 3-ribbed medially, orbiculate, 0.9–1.1 × 1 mm, apex mucronate. Flowers: stamen 1; anthers ellipsoid, 0.2 mm, connective not prolonged; styles 0.3–0.4 mm; stigmas 0.3 mm. Achenes light brown, ellipsoid, 0.7–0.9 × 0.4 mm, base barely stipelike to narrowly cuneate, apex acute, surfaces glabrous.

Distribution: From C and S Europe and N Africa to China, N Vietnam and Laos; Iraq, Turkey, Caucasus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan, Pakistan, India.

introduced; Ont., Que.; Calif., Conn., Md., Mass., Mo., Nebr., Nev., N.J., Pa., S.Dak., Va.; Eurasia.

Fl. Per.: (April-) June - August.

Fruiting summer.

By rivers, stream and canal margins, flooded areas, moist fields; 5000-8000 ft.

Damp, disturbed soils, emergent shorelines, puddles; 0–1700m.

Cyperus fuscus is a species of sedge known by the common name brown galingale, or brown flatsedge. This plant is native to much of Europe, Asia and North Africa from England, Portugal and Morocco east to China and Thailand. It is an introduced species in North America, where it is naturalized in widely scattered locations in the United States and Canada.

Cyperus fuscusis a plant of wet areas, particularly disturbed places such as ditches and temporary ponds. It is an annual herb with paper-thin stems reaching 30 centimeters in maximum height. There may be short, flat leaves about the base of the plant. The inflorescence contains three to 15 spikelets, which are flat, oval or rectangular, and dark brown to deep purple. Each spikelet has around ten flowers enclosed in dark bracts. The fruit is a light brown achene about a millimeter long. In the UK, Cyperus fuscus is one of 101 species named as a priority for conservation by the conservation charity Plantlife.