Chufa Sedge Cyperus esculentus

Scientific Name: Cyperus esculentus (Cyperaceae).


English Name: Chufa Sedge; Nut Grass; Yellow Nutsedge; Tiger Nut Sedge; Earth Almond; Chufa Flatsedge; Yellow Nutgrass.


French Name: Souchet comestible (='edible sedge'); Souchet sucré (='sweet sedge'); Souchet tubéreux (='tuberous sedge'); Amande de terre (='earth almond'); Souchet sultan (='sultan sedge').

5 Key Characters:

• up to 90 cm high.
• triangular stems.
• narrow leaves (3 - 10 mm wide).
• seeds flat and oval.
• seedheads distinctive, with 4 bracts (leaf like) at right angles to each other.
  

Lookalikes: When young the species can be mistaken for the grasses Cocksfoot Dactylis glomerata or Couch Elymus repens, but grasses do not have triangular stems.


Habitat: Moist sandy soil such as river sands eg along the Loire. Takes advantage of soil disturbance.


Flowering Period:

Status: Invasive alien.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Rural Tracks

Throughout France there is a network of variously named public rights of way. One of the most frequently encountered by walkers is the chemin rural (plural chemins ruraux). These are (usually) unpaved tracks owned and maintained by the local commune. They are almost always ancient laneways, winding through farms and today used by walkers, horse riders, hunters and farmers. Sometimes they are unmarked, but usually they have a small sign at either end with the letter R, C or V and an a number to identify them. They also frequently have the standardised walking trail symbols posted along them and appear on maps as part of the national hiking trail (randonnée) network. Even when they appear to be private farm tracks, the public is permitted to walk them. Walking them in all seasons is a great way to get to know the wildlife of this area, as they are usually long thin grasslands bordered by hedges, woodland or agricultural land, and sometimes even aquatic habitats such as streams, ditches, springs and ponds. You are unlikely to meet another person on most of them.

A chemin rural near Yzeures sur Creuse, October.

A chemin rural near Yzeures sur Creuse, October.

A notice issued by the local authority who has responsibility for maintaining this chemin rural, stapled to a trackside tree. It says that motorised vehicles are not permitted on this track between October and May ie the months when it is likely to be wet. The commune very sensibly does not want the track churned up and ruined by hunters' vans or farm machinery.

Bird watching in the Brenne down a track near la Maison du Parc.

Bird watching in the Brenne, near l'Etang vieux. This track had a sign temporarily banning agricultural vehicles because it was flooded, however that didn't stop anyone on foot who was prepared to take off their boots and slosh.

The sign on this track in the Brenne says 'Attention. Track under repair. Do not tow vehicles down it.' There was no problem (apart from ankle deep water) in walking down it.

A track through the bocage country along the River Vienne near Chinon.

A track through arable crop land and forest. This is one of my butterfly transects.

Small Man-made Lakes - Etangs

This area, particularly the Brenne and the Sologne, abound in small man-made lakes or ponds called étangs in French. There are thousands of them, many created in the Middle Ages, but many from more modern attempts to drain the naturally boggy land and create commercial fish farms. These étangs provide a significant habitat for birds, reptiles (Pond Terrapins, snakes), amphibians (frogs, newts), dragonflies and aquatic plants.

These étangs are open deep water along one end, where there is an earth dam wall with a sluice to control overflow. The other end, where the water often enters via a small natural stream, forms a shallow tail of reedbeds and willow scrub. Beyond the reeds, in the water, are waterlilies and other truly aquatic plants. Bog plants growing along the tail of the étang include sedges, Clubrush, Bulrush, Branched Bur-reed, Yellow Iris and Marsh St Johns Wort.

Put together these étangs form wetland zones of similar significance to the better known Camargue or Baie de Somme. This is an ever changing landscape however. Every year in the late autumn many of the étangs are drained to harvest the fish. This practice also offers the opportunity to eradicate invasive species such as Water Primrose. Draining the lakes means that the rich mud, full of food for wading birds, is exposed.

The lakes are refilled either by water draining in off the surrounding land, or as part of a cascade of linked étangs which are emptied in sequence so all but the last is refilled by water coming down from the next. The fluctuating state of individual lakes and their close proximity to one another mean that the wildlife tends to migrate from one to another as conditions change.

The well vegetated étang at the Maison du Parc, the Brenne.

L'Etang de la mer rouge in the Brenne, overflowing across the dam wall. Unusually, this very large étang is not controlled by a sluice, but the overflow is directed into a nearby small étang.

L'Etang vieux, well vegetated and run as a nature reserve in the Brenne.

The reedbed and willow scrub tail of l'Etang vieux in the Brenne.

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Bird watching in the Brenne, at the étang by the Maison du Parc, in May.

Bent Grasses - Agrostis spp

Bent Grasses Agrostis spp get their name from the way the plants shoot along laterally spreading roots. The flowers are formed on loose spreading panicles which often become more compact once the seeds have set. To identify them to species level you need to use a good field guide or key such as the Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe by Francis Rose. As with many grasses it is important to look at the ligule (the small flap inside the leaf blade where it meets the stem) and match it to the illustrations in your field guide to get to a species identification.

Velvet Bent Grass Agrostis canina: Grows in tufts, 20 - 60 cm tall. Bright green, narrow, rough leaves usually rolled in on themselves. The ligules are pointed. Quite common, occurring in damp or boggy acid grassland and wet woodland paths. Flowers June to August. Below, photographed in the draw down zone of the Etang de la Ribaloche in the Foret de Preuilly, June.

Common Reed - Phragmites australis

Scientific Name: Phragmites australis (syn P. communis).

English Name: Common Reed.

French Name: Roseau commun or Sagne.

5 Key Characters:

• very tall (can be up to 3.5 m high).
• forms beds covering large areas.
• long, smooth, spear shaped, gray green leaves.
• 'seedhead' a loose soft pale coloured panicle up to 40 cm long.
• a dominant and key species in the local wetlands.

Lookalikes: None.

Habitat: A lowland species found in fens, swamps, ditches, lake and river banks.

Flowering Period: August-September-October.

Status: Common.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Spike Rushes - Eleocharis spp

Despite their name and appearance, Spike Rushes are a type of sedge (Cyperaceae). With their (usually) cylindrical stems they certainly look more like rushes than sedges to the untrained eye. They are easy to distinguish from rushes though by their spear head shaped terminal spikelets. Like all sedges, the easiest way to identify them to species level is to wait until their 'seeds' (technically fruit) are formed and match them in a good field guide such as the Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe by Francis Rose, or if you are feeling strong, you may choose to open the Field Flora of the British Isles by Clive Stace. They are plants of wet habitats.

Common Spike Rush Eleocharis palustris: called Scirpe des marais in French (='Marsh Rush Sedge'), this species grows to 60 cm tall, with stems that are up to 4 mm in diameter, and terminal spikelets 5 - 20 mm long. It is a widespread and common species occuring in fens, marshes, wet meadows, ditches and pond edges, favouring less acidic areas. It flowers from May to July and fruit will be formed from June. The photos below were taken in June in the draw down zone of the Etang de Ribaloche in the Foret de Preuilly.

Sedges - Carex spp

Sedges have edges, rushes are round
And grasses are hollow right down to the ground

This mnemonic for distinguishing between sedges, rushes and grasses is worth remembering, even though there are plenty of exceptions to the rule.

Basically, it is the many Carex spp sedges that have the edges i.e. their stems are more or less triangular in section, a characteristic that is usually easy to see and certainly easy to feel with your fingertips. The French for sedge is laiche.

To identify them reliably to species level it is best to run the seed capsules through a key. You will need to learn some technical language relating to the parts of the plant and a 10 or 20x magnifying loup to see the level of detail required. Each species has a distinctive grainlike seed (technically a 'fruit'). Useful references books are the Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe by Francis Rose, the Field Flora of The British Isles by Clive Stace and the BSBI Handbook Sedges of the British Isles. They are not easy to identify from photographs.

Glaucous Sedge C. flacca: La Laiche glauque in French. Very common, with flattish leaves that are generally greyer or duller on top than underneath. Found in calcareous grasslands, meadows, fens, flushes. Fruits June-September. Below, Glaucous Sedge photographed flowering in the Parc de Boussay, April.















Hairy Sedge C. hirta: la laiche hérissée (='the bristly sedge'). Hairy (although less so if the site is wet). The fruits are long beaked and downy, the leaves grow in tufts and can be flat or keeled (v shaped in section). The female spikelets are widely spaced and each has a long leaf like bract. The plant grows in meadows, hedgebanks and open woodland. Fruits June - September. Common. The photos below are of a plant in the draw down zone of the Etang de Ribaloche in the Foret de Preuilly, June.






















Cyperus Sedge C. pseudocyperus: known in French as la laiche faux souchet (='the false papyrus sedge'). Loosely tufted, growing 40 - 90 cm tall, with rough edged sharply angled stems. The leaves are bright shiny yellowy green, rough to the touch, very long (over a metre) but fairly rigid and upright. The female spikelets are cylindrical, drooping, bright green and prickly looking with long leaf like bracts. The species is fairly common in swamps, ponds, ditches and woodland pools, avoiding acidic waters. The photo below was taken in June. The plant is growing in the draw down zone of the Etang de la Rolle in the Foret de Preuilly.

Field Woodrush - Luzula campestris

Scientific Name: Luzula campestris

English Name: Field Woodrush. Sometimes Good Friday Grass or Sweeps Brush.

French Name: La Luzule champetre

5 Key Characters:

• sparsely hairy.
• although the species is a rush, it has flat blade leaves like a grass, not round like a rush.
• brown and yellow flowers surprisingly conspicuous.
• small knob at the tip of each leaf.
• rarely more than 15 cm high.
  

Lookalikes: Great Woodrush L. sylvatica, which is a much larger and rarer plant.

Habitat: Almost everywhere - grasslands, banks, heathland paths, damp patches in woodland.

Flowering Period: March-April-May-June.

Status: Very common.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Rushes - Juncus spp

Sedges have edges, rushes are round
And grasses are hollow right down to the ground

This mnemonic for distinguishing between sedges, rushes and grasses is worth remembering, even though there are plenty of exceptions to the rule (usually non-Carex spp sedges).

Rushes Juncus spp are fairly easily recognisable even for non-botanists. They have rather rigid tubular leaves and stems, brown flowers / seed heads and grow in dampish places. To identify them to species level you need to know:

• if the leaves are hollow or filled with pith (a sort of spongey material). You need to neatly cut them transversely or lengthwise to see.
• whether the leaves are 'jointed' ie running your fingers up the leaves reveals a ladderlike construction inside. You can feel the crossbraces inside the leaf.
• if the leaves are smooth or grooved. If grooved they may be finely fluted all the way around like a tiny Greek column, or they may be sort of folded in half, forming a groove down one side. You can feel for grooves by rolling a leaf in your fingers or look at them with a magnifying loup.
• how the flowers are arranged and what the seed capsules look like - match them in a good field guide such as the Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe by Francis Rose.

They can range in size from the well known pond edge and damp pasture species that are usually 40 - 60 cm high, to small plants that grow on open ground such as pathways and in lawns and only reach 2 - 10 cm high.
Sharp-flowered Rush J. acutiflorus: This species is one of the jointed rush group, with hollow stems that are cross partitioned inside. The red brown flowers are in loose bunches on the ends of the stems. The stems are 30 - 100 cm high, with 2 - 4 deep green round leaves each, growing in erect patches. The seed capsules are a fine cone shape, very pointy and surrounded by sharply pointed perianth segments which arch outwards at the point. Common and abundant in fens, bogs, wet meadows or woods, favouring somewhat acid soils. Flowers July - September. Below, photographed in the drawdown zone of the Etang de Ribaloche in the Foret de Preuilly, June. In the second photo you can see the joints in the stems.











Soft Rush J. effusus: This species is one of a group that appears to flower from the side of the stem (in fact, the 'stem' above the flowers is a bract). The leaves are reduced to brown sheaths at the bottom of the stems. It is erect and forms dense tufts, tall (30 - 150 cm) and robust. The stems are green, filled with pith and feel smooth (although in fact they are very finely fluted). The seed capsule is egg shaped, brown, with a dimple in the top. Very common in damp grassland, marshes, bogs and wet open woods. Flowers June to August. Photographed, below, in the draw down zone of the Etang de Ribaloche in the Foret de Preuilly during the drought of 2011. In dry conditions like this it can look very like its close relative Compact Rush J. conglomeratus.