Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
2. Carex L. -- Sedge7. Carex bicknellii Britt. -- Bicknell's sedge
Tufted from short rootstocks; culms erect, sharply trigonous, 3-12 dm long, overtopping the leaves. Leaves 2-4.5 mm wide; sheaths white-hyaline ventrally. Spikes bisexual, gynaecandrous, usually 3-7, globose to ovoid above the narrower male portion, 10-18 mm long, aggregate to separate in an ovoid to linear head 1.5-6 cm long; bracts much reduced; pistillate scales obtuse to acute, shorter and much narrower than the perigynia. Perigynia stramineous, membranous, thin except where thickened by the achene, broadly ovate, 4-7 mm long, 1/2 to 3/4 as wide, several-nerved on both faces (fewer ventrally), broadly wing-margined to the base, abruptly contracted to the serrulate, bidentate beak which is 1/4 to 1/3 the entire length of the perigynium; achenes lenticular, 1.7-2 mm long; stigmas 2. Jun--Jul. Wet meadows, low prairie, ditches and shores; occasional in the e and c parts, rare w; (ME to Sask., s to DE, OH, MO, OK and NM).
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