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Bull Sedge (Carex lanuginosa)

• Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
• Flowering: April-July.
• Field Marks: This sedge has separate male and female spikes and hairy perigynia up to 1/8 inch long.
• Habitat: Wet meadows, wet prairies, swampy woods.
• Habit: Perennial herb with thickened rootstocks.
• Stems: Erect, rough to the touch, sharply triangular, up to 3 feet tall.
• Leaves: Elongated, narrow, smooth except along the edges, up to 1/4 inch broad.
• Flowers: Male and female borne in separate spikes; the male spikes 1-3 in number, more or less erect; the pistillate spikes 1-3, cylindrical, up to 2 inches long, erect.
• Scales: Ovate, pointed or short-awned at the tip, shorter than or about as long as the perigynia.
• Sepals: 0.
• Petals: 0.
• Stamens: 3.
• Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; the perigynium oval to ovoid, hairy, with a short, 2-toothed beak, up to 1/8 inch long.
• Fruits: Achenes triangular, smooth.
• Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.