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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Showy Sedge
Carex bella L.H. Bailey

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
Flowering: May-August
Field Marks: This Carex has the following distinctive features: achenes triangular stigmas 3, perigynium scarcely beaked spikes with female flowers at the top, male spikes at the bottom, and none of the spikes overlapping.
Habitat: Wet meadows, along streams, moist woods, usually in the higher mountains.
Habit: Perennial herb with fibrous roots but without rhizomes.
Stems: Upright, up to 2 feet tall, smooth.
Leaves: Elongated, flat, up to 1/3 inch wide, smooth.
Flowers: Crowded into spikelets, the spikelets up to 1 1/2 inches long, subtended by a bract without a sheath at its base; male flowers borne at the base of each spikelet; lower spikelets tending to droop.
Scales: Ovate, pointed at the tip, reddish brown to blackish brown with a transparent edge and a green mid-vein, up to 1/8 inch long.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; each perigynium obovoid, up to 1/4 inch long, with a very short, terminal beak; stigmas 3.
Fruits: Achenes triangular, up to nearly 1/4 inch long. smooth.
Notes: The achenes are eaten by birds and small mammals.

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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/plants/florawe/species/3/carebell.htm
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Page Last Modified: Saturday, 02-Feb-2013 06:24:22 EST
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