gardening with indigenous traditionally-useful plants
ABOVE: Ms Ntombizane Duka from Makholekile Village, Port St Johns, showing iNgobozi (a harvesting basket) and isiTeli (a cutting
and serving tray) made from the Matjiesgoed Sedge or Imizi (Cyperus textilis). Photo: SANBI.
The Matjiesgoed Sedge
by Phakamani Xaba, SANBI, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden and Peter Croeser
This is the twelfth in a series of articles on indigenous plants that have traditionally been
used by humans in southern Africa for food, medicine, crafts and charms. Some of these
plants are now threatened while others that once formed an important part of our diet
have been forgotten. It is hoped that these articles will help revive an interest in growing,
using and conserving a valuable indigenous resource. Please note that cited traditional
information about medicinal use of plants does not constitute a recommendation for
their use for self-treatment. Improper or uninformed use of wild plants can be extremely
dangerous.
Learning to grow and use these plants will help:
· Promote sustainable use of these plants.
· Provide practical growing information especially for threatened species.
· Reduce pressure of harvesting from natural populations in the wild.
· Inform the general public about indigenous useful plants.
· Preserve indigenous knowledge.
U
sing sedges to weave baskets and
mats is an ancient human craft which
still persists in rural communities
around the world today. The most used
sedge for this purpose in South Africa is the
Matjiesgoed, Cyperus textilis. It is not only
used for weaving the mats for the traditional
beehive hut matjieshuise of the desert
Nama people of the northern Cape interior
but also forms the basis of an important
traditional basket and mat weaving industry
amongst the Pondo of the Eastern Cape
and the Zulu of KwaZulu Natal. Apart from
its traditional usage, Matjiesgoed also plays
an essential role in filtering and biological
cleansing of water in sewage farms and is an
attractive, hardy garden subject that is easy
to propagate and cultivate.
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Where do we find the Matjiesgoed Sedge?
It occurs throughout the Western Cape,
Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in South
Africa, from coastal areas to altitudes of
1 675 m, in wetlands, and along stream and
river banks. It is also found in arid regions
around waterholes or springs.
What does it look lke?
The plants are tall, tufted, green and grass-like
sedges that grow in clumps in or near water.
They can grow up to 3 m tall, but are more
usually 1 m high. They are without apparent
leaves, but have a solid, round, straight culm
(stem) topped with a radiating tuft of long,
thin, flat, sharp-tipped leaf-like bracts looking
rather like the spokes of an umbrella. Leaves
are reduced to unsplit sheaths clasping the
base of the culm which rises from a stolon
or rhizome. Small, branched greenish-brown
flowering spikes develop above the bracts
in late summer, the tiny glume-protected
flowers in two flattened rows produce small
swollen nutlets.
The Matjiesgoed is distinguished from
other tall sedges by its round stem (culm),
as opposed to the angled stems of Cyperus
sexangularis and C. papyrus both of which
are also used for weaving mats. The latter
is closely related to the famous Egyptian
papyrus reed, Cyperus papyrus subsp. hadidii
which was thought to be extinct for some 150
years until in 1968 some small, relict colonies
were found to the west of the Nile delta.
Not all sedges are welcomed by gardeners.
The edible Yellow Nut Grass (C. esculentus) and
the Plain Nut Grass (C. rotundus) are regarded
as troublesome weeds in the garden.
Conservation status and threats
The Matjiesgoed Sedge is not presently
threatened, but possible threats in the future
could be overharvesting for the commercial
tourist crafts and habitat destruction.
Ecology and pests
Reed beds where the water-loving sedges
like the Matjiesgoed Sedge grow are
extensively used as natural filters and excess
nitrogen and phosphate extractors in water
purification and recycling installations. In
natural wetlands and streams they clean
water by reducing its sediment load by
slowing down the movement of water.
Sedges also help stabilize soil and reduce
erosion along streams and river banks. The
tall culms provide nesting support, and the
bracts provide nesting material for birds,
especially weavers.
As with the grasses, wind is probably the
most important pollination agent.
Matjiesgoed has few, if any, pests and,
while the plant is sensitive to frost, its
stolons are remarkably resilient and re-grow
each season.
Traditional and future uses
The Matjiesgoed Sedge is used traditionally
in southern Africa to make mats for building
beehive huts by the Nama of the Northern
Cape. It is also used to make sleeping and
sitting mats, as well as baskets, serving trays
and twine in Pondoland in the Eastern Cape
and KwaZulu-Natal. Recognition that demand far outstripped
natural supply led IsiMpondo-speaking rural
Khanyayo women in the Mkmabati area of
the Eastern Cape to sustainably cultivate and
harvest their own C. textilis crops alongside
local rivers and streams. Intensive research on
the community by Prof. Thembela Kepe and
a graduate researcher, Zwoitwa Makhado,
from the University of the Western Cape has provided an important
insight into the economics and social dynamics of harvesting the
Matjiesgoed Sedge and the local trade in mats and baskets. While the
industry is not the sole source of income for many of the rural crafting
families surveyed, it is nonetheless an important component for both
producers as well as traders. Crafters were predominantly middleaged or older women (there were only two men out of the 52 crafters
and traders surveyed, one of whom was disabled). Individual crafters
earned from as little as R15 to R300 a month from making and selling
mats and baskets.
Western influence and modernization has led to crafters weaving
hand bags, blinds for windows, miniature huts and other products
that are aimed at the tourist market. A new trend is to include plastic
strips for colour instead of natural dyes.
James Leighton, nearly a hundred years ago, recommended using C.
textilis in South Africa for making a strong paper. Other Cyperus species
that are used for crafts include C. articulatus (baskets, but is also listed
as poisonous), C. fastigulata (sleeping mats), C. latifolius (baskets),
C. lungus (medicine), C. natalensis (baskets), C. papyrus (sleeping mats)
and C. sexangularis (sleeping mats as well as medicinally for stomach
complaints).
WHATS IN A NAME?
Botanical name: Cyperus textilis Thunb. Cyperus comes from the Latin cuperos for
rush or sedge, textilis is from the Latin for woven. Matjiesgoed was collected by
the Swedish botanist, Carl Peter Thunberg, during his travels in the Cape between
1772 and 1775, and described in his Prodromus Plantarum Capensium in 1794. In
his account of his botanical travels he described the use of the woven sedge mats to
construct a matjieshuis.
Family name: The Matjiesgoed Sedge belongs to the Sedge family, Cyperaceae.
Common names: Tall Star Sedge, Umbrella Sedge, Mat Sedge (Eng.); Matjiesgoed
(mat-making material), Kooigoed (bedding material) (Afr.); imiZi (singular: iluZi)
(Xhosa); umuZi, imiZi (Zulu). C.A. Smith explains that it was once traditional farming
practice to put down dried sedge for horses and mules to sleep on. The urine-softened
kooigoed was then used to make compost before it was ploughed into the field.
Commercial availability
The Matjiesgoed Sedge is available from a few specialist nurseries.
GET CONNCECTED
Please email Phakamani Xaba at [email protected].
READING
A good account appears on www.plantzafrica.com.
A further reading list can be emailed on application to [email protected].
RIGHT: The dry flower head of the Matjiesgoed Sedge (Cyperus textilis). Photo: SANBI.
An easy guide to growing
ACTIVITY
ENVIRONMENT REQUIRED
FOR SUCCESS
MATJIESGOED SEDGE
TREATMENT
TIME
REMARKS
Seed
harvesting
and
preparation
Seed (nutlets) should be
harvested when almost dry
or dry in summer before
getting windswept.
Sow fresh seed immediately
after harvesting to improve
germination rate.
Seed ripens in summer.
Seeds are small and should be monitored
daily.
Seed
sowing,
germination
and
hardeningoff
Sow seed in tray with riversand and lightly cover them
by sieving river-sand on top.
Keep tray moist. Treat the
seed with an anti-fungicide if
growing in large volumes.
Seeds will germinate within two months of sowing.
Leave seedlings in trays until they reach
3-5 cm in height. Pot the seedlings into a
small container with a general mixture of
sand (1), loam (2) and compost (1). Add
Bounceback® to your potting mix.
Vegetative
division
preparation
Hand-sized rhizomatous
roots can be divided and
potted in a sandy loam soil
medium or transplanted
directly to the ground.
Your divided plants can be
kept in a shaded area for
six weeks or more until
established. .
Division can be made in midsummer.
Cyperus textilis can be transplanted
easily in midwinter (June). Plants must
be pruned back hard, removing all
leaves and culms. The rooted cuttings
should be potted in a container with a
general mixture of sand (1), loam (2)
and compost (1). Add Bounceback ® to
your potting mix. Plants can be planted
out next season. Directly transplanted
divisions establish quicker than seedlings.
Cultivation
Planting is best carried out
in spring or early summer.
Plants thrive in full sun and do
well in light shade.
Untidy and over grown clumps can be pruned back in
winter and will re-establish in summer.
Cyperus textilis plants grow well next to a
pond or any wet area. They will not take
over unless left unattended.
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