Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Carex buxbaumii Wahlenb.
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: May-August
- Field Marks: The perigynia are covered with minute warts when viewed with a lens. The terminal spike has female flowers at the top and male flowers below. The other spikes have only female flowers. There are 3 stigmas, and the achenes are triang
- Habitat: Swamps, bogs, around lakes, wet meadows.
- Habit: Perennial herb with creeping rhizomes, without last year's leaves persisting at the base of the plant.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, up to 3 feet tall, without hairs.
- Leaves: Elongated, up to 1/6 inch wide, without hairs, usually all shorter than the stems.
- Flowers: Borne in 2-5 spikes, the terminal spike up to 1 1/2 inches long, with female flowers at the top and male flowers below, the other spikes up to 1 1/2 inches long, with only female flowers; scales longer than the perigynia, brown to purple-black, with a paler midvein, tapering to a slender awn at the tip.
- Sepals: O.
- Petals: O.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium, the perigynium ellipsoid to obovoid, up to 1/5 inch long, covered with minute warts, beakless or with a very short beak, pale gray-green; stigmas 3.
- Fruits: Achenes triangular, up to 1/10 inch long, smooth.
- Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.
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