Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Carex diandra Schrank
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: May-August
- Field Marks: This Carex is recognized by its spikelets with male flowers at the tip, its 2 styles, its lenticular achenes, the absence of rhizomes, and its crowded, compact inflorescence.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, bogs, swamps, around lakes and ponds.
- Habit: Tufted perennial from fibrous roots.
- Stems: Upright, triangular, up to 3 feet tall, without hairs.
- Leaves: Alternate, elongated, flat, up to 1/6 inch wide, usually as long as or slightly longer than the stem, without hairs; sheaths red-dotted.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets with the male flowers at the tip of each spikelet; spikelets several, crowded into a compact inflorescence up to 2 inches long.
- Scales: Lanceolate, pale brown, pointed at the tip but rarely owned.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; each perigynium ovoid to lance-ovoid, up to 1/8 inch long, dark brown, tapering to or contracted to a short beak; beak minutely toothed; styles 2.
- Fruits: Achenes lenticular, about 1/20 inch long.
- Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.
Previous Species -- Hoary Sedge (Carex canescens)
Return to Species List -- Group 3
Next Species -- Douglas' Sedge (Carex douglasii)
