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

54. Carex tribuloides Wahl.

Tufted from short rootstocks; culms sharply trigonous, 3-9 dm long, exceeding the leaves. Leaves rather stiff, mostly 3-7 mm wide; sheaths loose, green-striate and firm ventrally except for the V-shaped hyaline area at the mouth. Spikes bisexual, gynaecandrous, 5-15, oblong-ovoid, 6-13 mm long, blunt-tipped, rounded to clavate at the base, densely to loosely aggregated into an ovoid to oblong head 2-5 cm long; bracts much reduced, inconspicuous; pistillate scales acute to acuminate, shorter than the perigynia. Perigynia with tips appressed to ascending in the spikes, light green to pale brown, much flattened except where distended by the achene, lanceolate, (3.5)4-6 mm long, 1-1.8 mm wide, short-stipitate at the base, broadly winged near the middle but nearly wingless around the achene, tapered to the serrulate, bidentate beak which is 1/3 to 1/2 the entire length of the perigynium; achenes lenticular, ca. 1.5 mm long; stigmas 2. Jun--Jul. Floodplains, wet meadows, shores and ditches; occasional in n, c and e NE; (N.S. to Ont. and MN, s to FL, LA and OK).
GIF- Distribution Map

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