Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Carex trichocarpa Muhl. ex Willd.
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: This sedge is readily identified by its separate male and female spikes, its cylindric female spikes, and its hairy perigynia with two long, terminal teeth.
- Habitat: Marshes, wet meadows.
- Habit: Tufted perennial herb from creeping rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, slender, up to 4 feet tall, usually rough in the upper portion.
- Leaves: Elongated, rough along the edges, up to 1/3 inch wide, at least some of them overtopping the flowering stems.
- Flowers: Borne in spikes, the male spikes 2-6, the female spikes 2-4; male spikes slender, short-stalked; female spikes cylindrical, up to 4 inches long, up to 2/3 inch in diameter, the uppermost short-stalked and upright, the lower sessile; female scales lanceolate to ovate, pointed at the tip, shorter than the perigynia.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Borne in perigynia, the perigynia ovoid, hairy, strongly nerved, up to 1/2 inch long, tapering to a long, 2-toothed beak; styles 3.
- Fruits: Achenes triangular.
- Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.
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