Hmm, it doesn't look like any of the common grass weeds around here. If it has round shoots I'd say it's more likely a spike rush (Eleocharis) which we have growing in all the low wet spots of our yard. I've never heard of it invading raised beds though. Are stems hollow?

Since on this one I can see where the plant meets the ground, I'd say for certain that this is a sedge (Carex) rather than a true grass.

I found clumps of this reed-like grass (?) while driving through the Capay Valley of N. California yesterday. The stems are very rigid, though not hollow. The specimen I have is about 2 1/2 ft. tall, however, there were somewhat taller ones (approx. 4 ft. or so) in the area. It was drizzly and rather windy while we were there, and this stuff looked so pretty as it swayed. Any ideas? (And sorry about the quality of the image! The scans I did of other plants immediately before and after it turned out nicely. Maybe it's haunted. Heheh.) Brenda Here is a link that might be useful: Grassy reed or something

Interesting! Could you tell me what the scientific name is for this sedge? I googled and came up w/"brome-like" sedge and "broom sedge"....is it one of these? However, this sedge, if it is indeed brome sedge, is growing in extremely (I think) fertile soil! Though you can't see it in the pic the sedge is growing amongst black and blue cohosh, bloodroot, rues of all kinds and other assorted native woodland species. The area is essentially Appalachian cove forest. There are areas that were disturbed by the building of the house about 10 yrs ago but the natives are still coming up through gravel and areas that used to be shaded by trees which are now in full sun so I think the soil is actually very "healthy"! In addition the house was actually built on a rock outcrop and I believe a lot of the rock is limestone...so not so sure that I want to add lime to the soil? This post was edited by adidas on Sun, May 11, 14 at 6:36