Leavenworth's sedge

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Leavenworth's sedge

Leavenworth's sedge

Morphology

Culm

Slender, strongly triangular, rough; base pale brown, wider than distal portion of culm.

Leaves

Blades 3-5, pale green, flat, 1 to 16 inches long, .04 to .16 inch wide, on lower third of culm.

Sheath

Tight around culm, green or green-and-white-mottled, fronts hyaline; ligule U-shaped, to .08 inch, usually longer than wide. 

Ligule

U-shaped, to .08 inch, usually longer than wide. 

Inflorescence

Dense heads; bracts subtending inflorescence hair-like, .08 to .8 inch long, shorter than inflorescence; spikes 3-8, crowded, nearly spherical to oblong, .28 to .8 inch long, .4 inch wide, staminate spikes above pistillate, spikes with 6-10 ascending or spreading perigynia; staminate spikes scales pale brown, narrowly lanceolate, to .06 inch wide; pistillate scales hyaline with green mid-vein, ovate, .06 to .1 inch long, ca. .04 inch wide, about half as long as perigynia, acute to cuspidate; perigynia pale green, ovate, .1 to .14 inch, broadest at base, tapering to short, minutely toothed beak.

Fruit

Achene, nearly circular, .04 to .06 inch; stigmas 2, rust-colored.

Ecology

Habitat

Open woods, woodland edges, dry grasslands, roadsides; sandy or calcareous soils.

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas

Additional Notes