Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center
Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
2. Carex L. -- Sedge
36. Carex lupulina Willd. -- Hop sedge
Loosely tufted with rhizomes; culms stout, trigonous, 3-12 dm long. Leaves
much surpassing the inflorescence, 4-15 mm wide; sheaths white hyaline
ventrally, the lower ones brownish. Spikes unisexual, the upper one staminate,
short-peduncled, 2-5 cm long; pistillate spikes 2-6, aggregated or at least
overlapping, the lowermost sometimes remote, 2.5-6 cm long, 2-3.5 cm thick;
bracts leaflike and spreading, sheathing at the base, much surpassing
the inflorescence; pistillate scales ovate-lanceolate, acuminate to short-awned,
much shorter than the perigynia. Perigynia many, ascending to appressed-ascending,
greenish-brown, dull, lance-ovoid and inflated, 10-20 mm long, 4-7 mm wide,
many-nerved, acuminate to the slender beak which is 1/2 or more of the total
length, the teeth 0.7-2 mm long; achenes trigonous, 3-4 mm long; stigmas
3, the style bent or twisted below the middle and persistent on the achene.
Jun--Aug. Wet woods, swamps, wet meadows, marshes, ditches and shores; rare
in c and e NE; (N.S. to MN and NE, s to FL and TX).
C. intumescens Rudge is a similar plant that occurs as a rarity in
moist woodland and perhaps along springs and streams in the Black Hills (Pennington
and Custer Counties, SD). It differs from the above in the relatively few,
uncrowded perigynia which are olive-green and glossy, plus the straight to
loosely contorted style.
Previous Section -- Carex limosa L.
Return to Family -- Cyperaceae - The
Sedge Family
Next Section -- Carex meadii Dewey -- Mead's sedge
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U.S. Geological Survey