Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
2. Carex L. -- Sedge14. Carex comosa F. Boott
Densely tufted, often forming large clumps; culms stout, sharply trigonous, 5-15 dm long. Leaves 5-12 mm wide; sheaths hyaline ventrally, conspicuously septate-nodulose dorsally. Spikes unisexual, the terminal one staminate, 3-7 cm long; lateral spikes pistillate, 3-5, cylindric, 3-8 cm long, 9-12 mm thick, the lower spikes longer-peduncled and eventually drooping; bracts leaflike, much surpassing the inflorescence; pistillate scales with a small hyaline-margined body, tapered into a long, rough awn longer than the body. Perigynia numerous, reflexed at maturity, flattened-trigonous, lanceolate with a stipitate base, 5.7-7.7 mm long, firm and shiny, strongly 12- to 17-nerved, tapering to the smooth, slender beak 2-3 mm long, the teeth recurved-spreading, 1.2-2 mm long; achenes trigonous, 1.5-2 mm long, continuous with the style; stigmas 3. Late Jun--Aug. Fresh marshes, swamps and spring-fed streams; rare in ne and the Black Hills, SD; frequent in the Sand Hills, s SD to c and e NE; (Que. to MN and SD, s to FL and TX; also WA and n ID to CA).
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