Bush's sedge

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Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Bush's sedge

Morphology

Culm

Erect, conspicuously triangular, slender, somewhat stiff, angles rough, sparsely pubescent, more or less reddish at base.

Leaves

Up to 5 per culm, flat, firm, .8 to 12 inches long, 1/16 to 1/6 inch wide, shorter than inflorescence, green, soft-hairy to nearly glabrous; margins rolled under.

Sheath

Long, tight, green, soft-hairy; tip often reddish.

Ligule

U-shaped, about as long as wide.

Inflorescence

Spikes, usually 2-3, stiff, ascending, terminal; lowest involucral bract much exceeding inflorescence; terminal spike cylindric, 1/2 to 2/3 inch long, 1/5 to 2/5 inch wide, with staminate and pistillate flowers, pistillate at top; base club-like; sessile or on short-stalk; lateral spikes 1-2, erect or ascending, 1/5 to 3/5 inch long, 1/5 to 2/5 inch wide, pistillate, usually clustered near tip of culm; nearly sessile; staminate scales lanceolate, pale brown with green midrib, margins lighter, often tinged reddish, tapered to awned tip; pistillate scales lanceolate, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long (including awn), exceeding perigynia, reddish-brown, midrib green, often slightly soft-hairy; tip tapered to spreading awn; awns usually protrude from spike; perigynia 15-30+ per spike, egg-shaped to nearly circular, 1/10 to 1/6 inch long, 1/16 to 1/10 inch wide, swollen, glabrous, olive-green to brownish, 9-13-veined; base stalk-like; beak absent.

Flower

Achene, 1/12 to 1/10 inch long, triangular; very short beak bent to 1 side; very short-stalked; stigmas 3.

Ecology

Habitat

Dry to moist grasslands, margins of woods, upland prairies, old fields, disturbed, open ground, ditches, roadsides.

Distribution

East half of Kansas.

Additional Notes