Gray's sedge

Images

Click on image to view full size

Gray's sedge pistillate spikes

Gray's sedge

Gray's sedge

Gray's sedge bracts

Gray's sedge inflorescence

Gray's sedge

Gray's sedge

Gray's sedge

Morphology

Culm

Flowering stems 1 to few per tuft; erect, stout, triangular, rough below inflorescence, pale brown or green, reddish purple at base, much surpassing leaves.

Leaves

6-12, flat, 4 to 14 inches long, 1/6 to 1/2 inch wide, green to gray-green, margins rough, tapering to narrow tip.

Sheath

Loose, white translucent on inner surface, basal sheaths purplish-red.

Ligule

Wider than long, U-shaped.

Inflorescence

Spikes, unisexual; terminal spike staminate, linear, .2 to 2.6 inches long, 1/25 to 1/6 inch wide; stalk 1/50 to 2.4 inches long; lateral spikes 1-2, pistillate, erect, spherical, 1 to 1.6 inch across, densely 4-35-flowered; stalks 1/40 to 1.4 inches long; bracts leaf-like, 3.2 to 10.4 inches long, 1/12 to 1/3 inch wide, much exceeding culm; staminate scales oblong-obovate to lanceolate, 1/6 to 1/4 inch long, blunt to awned, tan to pale orangish-brown with transparent margins; midrib green; pistillate scales ovate to nearly circular, 1/6 to 1/2 inch long, 1/12 to 1/6 inch wide, shorter than perigynia, straw colored to nearly white; margins white; midrib green; tip rounded to awned; awn to .35 inch long; perigynia 6-35 per spike, radiating out in all directions, nearly circular, 1/2 to 3/4 inch long, 1/6 to 1/3 inch wide, swollen, strongly 15-25-veined,glabrous to short-hairy, tapering gradually to beak 1/4 or less total length; beak 2-toothed.

Fruit

Achene, sessile, 3-sided, egg-shaped to nearly spherical, 1/8 to 1/4 inch long, 1/10 to 1/8 inch wide, golden brown at maturity; style persistent, usually straight; stigmas 3, slender, short, blackish.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist to wet deciduous woods, along streams, river bottoms, floodplains.

Distribution

East fifth of Kansas.

Additional Notes