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

29. Carex interior Bailey

Densely tufted; culms slender, sharply trigonous, 1-6 dm long, about equaling to exceeding the leaves. Leaves 1-2 mm wide; sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally. Spikes 2-4, the terminal one gynaecandrous or rarely staminate, the lateral ones pistillate, or seldom gynaecandrous, globose, ca. 5 mm in diameter, overlapping or nearly so in heads 0.8-2.5 cm long, the terminal spike often more remote than the lateral ones; bracts much reduced or obsolete; pistillate scales obtuse, much shorter than the perigynium. Perigynia brownish-green to brown, concavo-convex, ovate, filled to the margins by the achene, sharp-edged but not wing-margined, 2-3 mm long, 1/2 to 2/3 as wide, several-nerved dorsally, nerveless or few-nerved at the base ventrally, spongy at the base so that the achene fills mainly the upper 2/3 of the perigynium body, truncate-rounded at the base, contracted to a serrulate beak which is 1/4 to 1/3 the entire length of the perigynium; beak teeth obscure, not exceeding 0.25 mm long; achenes lenticular, 1.2-1.5 mm long, about as wide; stigmas 2. Late May--Jul. Wet meadows, shores, stream banks, springs, fens and boggy places; frequent from n ND to e SD, also the Black Hills and Sand Hills; (Labr. and Newf. to B.C., s to PA, IN, MO, KS and into n Mex.).


Carex interior (from Hermann 1970).

Previous Section -- Carex hystericina Muhl. ex Willd. -- Bottlebrush sedge
Return to Family -- Cyperaceae - The Sedge Family
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