Slender Spike Rush for Healthy Lakes and Ponds

Slender Spike Rush is a small native perennial that can grow completely underwater and in moist soil. It typically appears as a submerged plant. Spike Rush species are hard to identify and are easily mistaken for other smaller rushes, grasses, and sedges. However, all Spike Rush species have small fruiting spikes at the tips of the stem. Stems are unbranched and can be round, square, or flat.

Benefits of Slender Spike Rush

Spike Rush provides food and habitat for aquatic invertebrates that in turn feed fish, amphibians, reptiles, and other animals. Waterfowl and mammals such as muskrats and nutria also eat the plants, including the seeds, rhizomes, and tubers. When managed, this plant can be part of a thriving, balanced ecosystem.

Managing Slender Spike Rush

Spike rushes grow from rhizomes and seeds. This means they can be propagated by transplanting whole plants with the rhizomes—but it also means that digging up or cutting the plants allows them to regenerate.

Biological and chemical controls are better management options. Estate Management Services works with you to evaluate cost, environmental regulations in your state, and other factors to customize a long-term plan for you. Grass-eating carp are a good natural solution if they are allowed where you live. Contact or slow-acting systemic herbicides are also effective but must be applied carefully.

Treatment costs depend on the management plan you choose. At Estate Management Services, we offer no-cost, no-obligation site surveys, which you can schedule online or by calling 1-888-307-6637.