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

9. Carex brunnescens (Pers.) Poir.

Densely tufted from a short, fibrillose rootstock; culms slender, sharply trigonous, 0.7-6 dm tall, smooth or slightly roughened below the head, usually surpassing the leaves. Leaves deep green, 1-2.5(5) mm wide; sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally. Spikes 5-10, all gynaecandrous, ovoid, 4-8 mm long, each with 5-10(15) perigynia, the lower spikes usually widely separated in a head (1.5)3-5 cm long; lowermost bract setaceous, shorter than to exceeding its subtended spike, the remaining bracts shorter, scalelike; pistillate scales ovate, obtuse or acute, somewhat shorter than the perigynia. Perigynia filled to the margins by the achene, not winged or sharp-edged, 1.7-2.7 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, lightly nerved on both sides, not spongy-thickened at the base, tapered at the apex into a short, minutely bidentate beak 0.4-0.7 mm long, the beak and the upper portion of the perigynium minutely serrulate on the margins and whitish-puncticulate; achenes lenticular, 1.2-1.5 mm long, ca. 1 mm wide; stigmas 2. Late May--Jul. Wet woods and bogs; rare, with records from McHenry Co., ND and Custer Co., SD; (Circumboreal, in N.Amer. s to NJ, GA, TN, OH, MI, MN, n ND, CO, UT and OR).

Previous Section -- Carex brevior (Dewey) Mack. ex Lunell -- Fescue sedge
Return to Family -- Cyperaceae - The Sedge Family
Next Section -- Carex buxbaumii Wahl.

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