Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
2. Carex L. -- Sedge36. 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
