Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

PEST SEDGE

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Carex molesta Mack. ex Bright

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 10-40 inches

Family: Cyperaceae - Sedge Family

Flowering Period: May, June

Culms:

Erect, stout, strongly triangular, concealed in persistent bases of old leaves.

Leaves:

Blades 4-7, flat, thin, elongate, pale green, less than 1/8 inch wide, glabrous; margins rough.

Sheaths:

Tight, inner surface whitish transparent, outer surface green and white spotted.

Inflorescences:

Spikes, bisexual, 2-5, sessile, closely clustered, 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, nearly spherical; pistillate flowers above staminate flowers; bracts mostly scale-like; pistillate scales lanceolate, barely reaching bases of perigynia beaks; margins light brown; centers green; tips blunt or pointed; perigynia 15-30 per spike, broadly ovate, firm, flattened, green, outer face faintly nerved, inner face finely nerved; beaks less than 1/3 length of body, 2-toothed.

Fruits:

Achenes, lens-shaped, yellowish brown, 1-seeded; stigmas 2, short, reddish brown.

Habitat:

Dry or moist upland prairies, bottom ground, open thickets or woodlands, shorelines, and ditches.

Distribution:

Principally east 1/2 of Kansas.

Comments:

As inferred by its name, pest sedge can be somewhat weedy. Carex molesta closely resembles Carex brevoir. The 2 species occasionally intergrade.

Pest sedge