Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family

2. Carex L. -- Sedge

3. Carex atherodes Spreng. -- Slough sedge

Loosely tufted from long scaly rhizomes; culms erect, trigonous, 5-12 dm long. Leaves 3-12 mm wide; sheaths softly pubescent to puberulent dorsally, brown to purple-tinged at the mouth, the lower ones shredding into filaments. Spikes unisexual, sessile or short-peduncled, densely flowered; staminate spikes terminal, 2-6; pistillate spikes 2-4, remotely spaced, cylindric, 2-11 cm long; bracts leaflike, exceeding the culm; scales thin, hyaline or pale brown, shorter than the perigynium, the midvein prolonged into a slender awn. Perigynia ovoid, long-tapering into a smooth beak, 6-11 mm long, strongly many-nerved, the beak teeth smooth, recurved, 1.2-3 mm long; achenes trigonous, 2-2.5 mm long; stigmas 3. Jun--Jul. Marshes, wet meadows, ditches, stream and pond margins, usually in shallow water; common except in the w part, often abundant; (Circumboreal, in N.Amer. s to NY, MO, NE, CO, UT and OR).

Carex atherodes (from Hermann 1970).

Map key

Previous Section -- Carex aquatilis Wahl. -- Water sedge
Return to Family -- Cyperaceae - The Sedge Family
Next Section -- Carex athrostachya Olney

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