The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Bulbostylis capillaris
Also called Threadleaf Beakseed, Dense Tufted Hair Sedge, Hair Like Bulbostylis, Thread Leaved Beakseed, Dense Tuft Hair Sedge
A small annual sedge that forms low, upright tufts of thread-like leaves, usually in moist areas such as streamside meadows. Keep it moist and in good light; it is a minor wild plant rather than a common garden subject.
Bulbostylis capillaris is a species of sedge known by the common names densetuft hairsedge and threadleaf beakseed. It is native to much of North America, South America and the West Indies from Canada to Bolivia.
Bulbostylis capillaris grows in many types of habitat, generally in moist areas such as streamside meadows. It is an annual herb which is somewhat variable in appearance but generally takes the form of a small, upright tuft of green herbage growing close to the ground, between 10 and 24 centimeters tall. There are several stems surrounded by thready, thin leaves. The inflorescence occurs at the tip of the stem and is composed of tiny spikelets which are green washed with rusty red. The fruit is about a millimeter long.
Along with Piptochaetium montevidense and Juncus capillacaeus, Bulbostylis capillaris is used in Rio Grande do Sul as a medicinal plant in the form of a tisane to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs). This claim of antimicrobial activity against two common causes of UTIs, E. coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae, was investigated by Vogel et al. (2011) but found no evidence of effectiveness in treating bacterial infections.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Bulbostylis capillaris by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
