Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Carex amphibola Steud.
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: June-July
- Field Marks: This species differs by its separate male and female spikes, its bluntly angled perigynia, its often awned female scales, and its leaves up to 2/5 inch wide.
- Habitat: Rich woods, bottomland forests, wet meadows.
- Habit: Tufted perennial from short rootstocks.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, slender, smooth, up to 1 1/2 feet tall, purple-tinged at the base.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, green or glaucous, rough on the margins, up to 2/5 inch wide.
- Flowers: Male and female borne in separate spikes; male spike located at the end of the stem immediately below the terminal female spike, up to 1 1/2 inches long, sessile or on a rough stalk; female spikes 3-5, up to 1 1/4 inches long, up to 1/6 inch wide, subtended by leaf-like bracts.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium, with 4-12 perigynia per spike, the perigynia ellipsoid to obovoid, bluntly angled, up to 1/4 inch long, smooth, conspicuously grooved, beakless, pale green to yellow-brown; female scales usually awned at the tip, with white sides and a green midvein, yellow-brown; stigmas 3.
- Fruits: Achenes more or less triangular, yellow-brown, short-pointed at the tip, about 1/8 inch long.
Previous Species -- Greenish-white Sedge (Carex albolutescens)
Return to Species List -- Group 3
Next Species -- Water Sedge (Carex aquatilis)
