WOOLLY SEDGE
File Size: 123 KB
 
Carex pellita  Muhl. ex  Willd.
Ellsworth County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 12-40 inches
Family: Cyperaceae - Sedge Family
Flowering Period:   April, May, June, July
Culms: Erect, stiff, strongly triangular, usually rough on angles, purplish-red at base.
Leaves: Flat, to 1/5 inch wide, prominent mid-vein, rough near tip, margins rolled under near tip.
Sheaths: Dark red, composed of numerous fine fibers.
Inflorescences: Spikes, unisexual; upper 1-3 spikes staminate, erect, long-stalked; terminal spike 1 to 2 inches long, subtended by 1-2 shorter, sessile spikes; lowest leafy bract surpassing staminate spikes; staminate scales pointed, reddish-brown; lowest 2-3 spikes pistillate, sometimes with few staminate flowers at tip, erect, .4 to 1.6 inch long, sessile or lowest on slender stalk; pistillate scales broadly lanceolate, gradually tapering to point or awned, reddish-brown or purplish, green center, as long or longer and usually narrower than perigynia; perigynia to 75 per spike, nearly circular, to 1/5 inch long, densely woolly-hairy, many-ribbed; beak 2-toothed.
Flowers: Achene, triangular in cross-section, yellowish-brown, dotted, 1-seeded; stigmas 3.
Habitat: Marshy areas, swamps, wet prairies and meadows; sometimes in shallow water.
Distribution: Throughout Kansas.

Woolly sedge perigynia
67 KB
Ellsworth County, Kansas
Woolly sedge
159 KB
Ellsworth County, Kansas
Woolly sedge spikes
95 KB
Ellsworth County, Kansas
Woolly sedge
95 KB
Ellsworth County, Kansas