Comprehensive DescriptionRead full entry General: Purple
nutsedge is a colonial, herbaceous, perennial with fibrous roots
that typically grows from 7-40 cm tall and reproduces
extensively by rhizomes and tubers. The rhizomes are initially
white and fleshy with scaly leaves and then become fibrous,
wiry, and very dark brown with age. Rhizomes may grow in any
direction in the soil. Those growing upward and reaching the
soil surface become enlarged forming a structure 2-25 mm in
diameter variously called a “basal bulb, a tuberous bulb, or a
corm” that produces shoots, roots, and other rhizomes. Rhizomes
that grow downward or horizontally form individual tubers or
chains of tubers. Individual tubers are dark reddish-brown when
mature, about 12 mm thick, and vary from 10-35 mm long. The dark
green, shiny, three-ranked leaf blades arise from or near the
base of the plant. They are narrow and grass-like ranging in
size from 5-12 mm wide to 50 cm long and have a prominent
channel in cross section. The leaf sheaths ar