Inflated narrow-leaf sedge

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Inflated narrow-leaf sedge

Inflated narrow-leaf sedge

Inflated narrow-leaf sedge terminal and lateral spikes

Inflated narrow-leaf sedge bracts and spikes

Inflated narrow-leaf sedge habit

Inflated narrow-leaf sedge

Inflated narrow-leaf sedge bracts and spikes

Morphology

Culm

Erect to spreading, basally purplish red, slender, triangular.

Leaves

Blades green to pale green, flat, .5 to 20 inches long, .16 to .35 inch wide, smooth abaxially.

Sheath

Glabrous

Inflorescence

Bracts leaf-like, distal bract exceeds inflorescence; spikes (3-)4-5(-6), upper 2-4 overlapping; terminal spike staminate, sessile or nearly so, .28 to 1.4 inch, barely exceeding lateral spike; staminate scales hyaline to pale brown, narrowly oblong, .12 to .2 inch, acute to acuminate; lateral spikes 3-5, pistillate, uppermost sessile to short-stalked, lowermost stalked, .2 to 1.2 inch long, .18 to .4 inch thick; pistillate scales hyaline with green midrib, sometimes red-spotted, ovate, .16 to .3 inch long, .08 to .2 inch wide, about as long as perigynia, apex with awn; perigynia 3-15 per spike, spirally overlapping, narrowly ellipsoid to obovoid, .18 to .22 inch, glabrous.

Fruit

Achenes, yellowish brown, obovoid, .1 to .14 inch, apex abruptly short-pointed; stigmas 3.

Ecology

Habitat

Bottomland woods, stream margins, roadside ditches, ravine slopes.

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas

Additional Notes