Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
4. Dulichium Rich. ex Pers.1. Dulichium arundinceum (L.) Britt. -- Three-way sedge
Extensively rhizomatous perennial; culms arising singly, simple or seldom with slender branches from lower nodes, 3-10 dm long, hollow, terete or obtusely trigonous. Leaves rather evenly distributed along the culm, those in the lower 1/3 to 1/2 of the culm reduced to sheaths only; blades grasslike, rather short, flat, mostly 4-15 cm long, 2.5-8 mm wide; sheaths short, usually overlapping only in the upper portion, convex with a narrow brown band at the mouth. Inflorescences axillary, continuously produced from the lower or middle nodes upward, each a rather short spike of few-10 spikelets, these pinnately arranged, ascending to spreading, 10-25 mm long, mostly 4- to 10-flowered; rachilla winged, disarticulating into 1-fruited segments at maturity; scales (and their enclosed flowers) distichous in the spikelets, green to tan with brownish scarious margins, 5-8 mm long, several-nerved, acute to acuminate. Flowers perfect; perianth of 6-9 retrorsely barbellate bristles; stamens 3; styles bifid. Achenes tan, oblong, 2.5-3.5 mm long, with a stout, stipitate base, slenderly beaked by the persistent style. Aug--Oct. Marshes, wet meadows, shores and stream banks; uncommon in nc NE; (Newf. to B.C. s to FL, AL, e TX, NE, nw MT, n ID and CA).
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