Sawbeak Sedge (Carex stipata)
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: May-July.
- Field Marks: This species has male flowers below the female flowers. The female spikes are ovoid, with some of the lower perigynia pointing downward.
- Habitat: Wet prairies, swamps, wet woods, along rivers and streams.
- Habit: Perennial herb with a thickened rootstock.
- Stems: Erect, strongly triangular and somewhat spongy, often narrowly winged, up to 3 1/2 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated, shorter than the flowering stem, up to 1/3 inch broad.
- Flowers: Male and female borne separately; the male flowers few in number and situated at the tip of the pistillate spikes; the pistillate spikes numerous and crowded into elongated heads up to 4 inches long.
- Scales: Lanceolate to ovate, tapering to a narrow, toothed tip, much shorter than the perigynia.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; each perigynium lanceoloid, rounded and spongy at the base, strongly ribbed, up to 1/6 inch long, narrowed above into a slender, minutely toothed beak.
- Fruits: Achenes flattened, smooth.
- Notes: The common name, sawtooth sedge, is extremely inappropriate for this species.
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