Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family

2. Carex L. -- Sedge

46. Carex scoparia Schkuhr ex Willd. -- Broom sedge

Densely tufted, sometimes stoloniferous; culms sharply trigonous, usually exceeding the leaves, 2-10 dm long. Leaves 1-3 mm wide; sheaths tight, white-hyaline ventrally. Spikes bisexual, gynaecandrous, 4-10, ovoid to fusiform, 6-12 mm long, closely aggregate to separate, in an ovoid to linear-oblong head 1-5 cm long; bracts reduced, the lowest often setaceous; pistillate scales acuminate, slightly shorter than the perigynia. Perigynia greenish-white, flat, subulate to narrowly lanceolate, (3)4-6.5 mm long, 1/4 to 1/3 as wide, strongly to slightly several-nerved on both sides, narrow-winged for the entire length, gradually tapered to the serrulate, obscurely bidentate beak which is ca. 1/3 the length of the entire perigynium; achenes lenticular, 1-1.5 mm long; stigmas 2. Jun--Jul. Wet meadows, shores, springs, fens and swamps; scattered from e and c ND, s to NE where it is frequent; (Newf. to B.C., s to FL, AR, KS, NM and OR).


Carex scoparia (from Hermann 1970).

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