Common spikerush (marsh spikerush, creeping spikerush) is perennial plant, 10 to 100 cm tall, with long ground root. Stem is stiff, erect, round, smooth, bluish green. Leaf sheaths are brown to dark red, glazy. Inflorescence is a spike on the top, pointed, elongated, 5 to 30 mm long, with 20 to 70 tiny flowers. Common spikerush blossoms from May to August, sometimes still in October. It grows on moist places. It ranges from Atlantic coast and the Great Lakes area to Pacific coast, north up to Alaska; on the Great Plains north of Arkansas River commonly distributed, also in central Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle.
Through mid-1800’s, Cheyenne women weaved baskets and scuttles of common spikerush and other species of spikerush. The small ones was used for eating dishes any smaller ones was for children’s play. Also, certain eyeshades was weaved from spikerush which was fastened to cradleboards in order to protect baby’s face from sun rays. The big baskets of spikerush was used to store smaller utensils and as burden baskets carried on the back. Beside it, Cheyennes used spikerush in place of or mixed it withsedge(Carex nebrascensis, Carex stipata var. stipata) to prepare the grass bundles for buffalo skull of the Sun Dance altar (Grinnell 1923 I: 246; Hart 1981: 8).
