Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

HAIR SEDGE

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Bulbostylis capillaris (L. ) Kunth ex C. B. Clarke

Cherokee County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 2-12 inches

Family: Cyperaceae - Sedge Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September,October

Also Called:

Dense-tuft hairsedge.

Culms:

Several, erect or ascending, thread-like, glabrous, ribbed.

Leaves:

Basal and 1-2 on lower culms, spreading to ascending, hair-like, .4 to 4.2 inches long, less than 1/50 inch wide, about 1/3 as long as culm; margins rough, rolled inwards at edges; tip thin.

Sheaths:

Pubescent, back prominently ribbed, margins tan.

Ligules:

Spikelets terminal, solitary or in small umbel-like clusters, lance-ovoid, 1/8 to 1/5 inch long, several flowered, tips pointed; involcural bracts 2-several, hair-like, usually longer but occasionally shorter than inflorescence; scales overlapping in spiral pattern, ovate, dark-brown to reddish-brown, glabrous or minutely-hairy; midrib prominent, keeled, green; keel extending into short, sharp point; stamens 2; stigmas 3.

Fruits:

Achene, tiny, 3-angled, egg-shaped, to 1/25 inch long, yellowish to pale brown, surface with horizontal wrinkles.

Habitat:

Open, sandy, gravelly or rocky sites, sandy prairies, roadsides, waste areas, stream banks, pond and lake margins, thin-soiled areas.

Distribution:

East half of Kansas.

Origin:

Native

Hair sedge inflorescence