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Western Wetland Flora

Field Office Guide to Plant Species

Inflated Sedge
Carex vesicaria L.

JPG -- Species Photo JPG -- Distribution Map

Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
Flowering: May-August
Field Marks: This sedge is distinguished by the combination of 1-4 slender male spikes, several thick, upright female spikes, 3 stigmas, triangular achenes, and long-tapering perigynia 1/4-1/3 inch long.
Habitat: Marshes, wet meadows, swamps, bogs, edge of lakes and ponds, along streams.
Habit: Perennial herb with short, much branched rhizomes.
Stems: Upright, triangular, up to 3 feet tall, without hairs but sometimes rough to the touch.
Leaves: Alternate, elongated, narrow, up to 1/3 inch wide, flat, usually septate, smooth.
Flowers: Male and female borne in separate spikes; male spikes 1-4 in number, upright, up to 3 inches long, up to 1/8 inch thick, usually not subtended by bracts; female spikes 2-5 in number, upright, up to 3 inches long, up to 3/4 inch thick, e
Scales: Straw-colored to chestnut-colored, shorter and narrower than the perigynia, pointed at the tip but not awned.
Sepals: 0.
Petals: 0.
Stamens: 3.
Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; perigynia crowded, all ascending, pale green to straw-colored to chestnut-colored, lanceolate to lance-ovate, long-tapering to the tip, up to 1/3 inch long, smooth, with 10-20 nerves; stigmas 3.
Fruits: Achenes triangular, up to 1/8 inch long, with the terminal style persistent and bent.
Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl.

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