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Cyperaceae family

West Indian Fimbry Fimbristylis ferruginea

Native

West Indian Fimbry is a perennial grass native to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

More about this plant

Fimbristylis ferruginea is a species of fimbry, commonly referred to as rusty sedge or West Indian fimbry. This plant is frequently found along the coastlines and estuaries of Australia. It is also native to certain regions in Africa, southern Asia, and South America. The flowers of this species exhibit a distinctive rusty brown color and appear on a single spikelet during the months of May to July. Wikipedia →

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY

Size & form

Sources · Size & form

USDA PLANTS — Lifespan

TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0) — Foliage

Lifespan: Perennial
Foliage: Broadleaf

In the garden

Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →

Rain garden / bioswale — Rated OBL on the wetland list — tolerates wet feet, so it suits the soggy zone of a rain garden or bioswale that catches and filters runoff.Open guide →

derived roles

Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.

How we know this (1) Methods & honest limits

Photosynthesis Direct fact

A recorded categorical fact: each species is tagged C3 (standard), C4 (heat/water-efficient) or CAM (succulent, night-time CO₂ uptake) — or a facultative combination. We only show a trait card for the noteworthy C4/CAM cases; C3 is the unremarkable majority, kept in the data but not surfaced as a card.

Kattge, J. et al. TRY plant trait database — Categorical Traits Dataset (2012).

Derived values are computed from open data by a published method — labelled, cited, and never shown as a direct observation. Full methodology →

Sources for this entry (15) Open & cited

[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)

[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)

[05] Invasive / introduced status — US-RIIS v2.0 (USGS)

[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)

[07] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image

[08] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)

[09] Ecological value — GloBI

[10] Foliage — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[11] Functional traits — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[12] Photosynthetic pathway — TRY Plant Trait Database (CC BY 4.0)

[13] Mycorrhiza — FungalRoot v2.0 · Meng et al. 2024 (Dryad, CC0)

[14] Chromosomes — ChromoDB — IAPT/IOPB chromosome data series (Zenodo, CC BY 4.0)

[15] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county

Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.

Cite this page Open data, please attribute

PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).

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Ecological value open data

1 / 5 Keystone

Keystone (host) value — caterpillar, specialist-bee & monarch hosting. A low number means “not a keystone host,” not “low value”: generalist flower-visitor value is shown separately below.

Caterpillar host 1

Deep dive

Caterpillar host · 1/5 — native butterfly & moth caterpillars that feed on this genus — the base of the food web (more caterpillars → more songbirds). Genus-level keystone count from Warren II 2026 (CC0; Tallamy host-use records), gap-filled by our GloBI derivation.

Counts are genus-level and banded 0–5. Full rubric →

Host / keystone value from open interaction data. How this is scored →

📍 In your area live

Native to the U.S.

Recorded in 3 states.

Open occurrence records place it in 1 counties across 1 states · GBIF (CC0/CC-BY)

Native — Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands

Introduced — Hawaii

Recorded in 3 states/territories

Conservation

Invasive? Native

Wetland indicator OBL

Toxicity & pet safety

Check the ASPCA pet database →

Educational, not veterinary advice. If you suspect your pet ate this plant, contact a vet or pet poison-control line.

Functional traits TRY · Dryad

Seed mass tiny

0.41 mg

dust-fine seed — surface-sow; needs careful propagation

Photosynthesis heat-efficient

Heat-efficient (C4)

uses water and strong sun especially efficiently — an edge in hot, bright, dry summers (the “C4” pathway of prairie grasses & corn)

Mycorrhiza type uncertain

Facultative

facultatively mycorrhizal — partners with soil fungi opportunistically, so it can grow with or without them; the specific type isn’t reliably documented

Chromosomes cytotype variation

2n = 10, 20

several cytotypes on record (2n = 10, 20) — a polyploid complex; ploidy varies between populations, which often tracks with adaptability and spread

Deep dive — what these mean

Seed mass 0 mg — average weight of one seed. Bigger seeds are easier to hand-collect & direct-sow; dust-fine seeds need surface-sowing.

Photosynthesis — the heat- and water-efficient “C4” pathway — an advantage in hot, bright, dry conditions. (pathway C4)

Measured traits from TRY + Werner et al. (N-fix), Fan et al. (roots) & FungalRoot — general guidance, not species-specific prescriptions.

More modules coming

West Indian Fimbry Fimbristylis ferruginea

Growing & care

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