Straw flat-sedge

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Straw flat-sedge

Straw flat-sedge

Morphology

Culm

Few or solitary, erect, stout, glabrous, sharply 3-angled.

Leaves

Crowded near base, flat, narrow, longer leaves about same length as culm, 1/12 to 3/5 inch wide, margins somewhat rough.

Inflorescence

Spikes, simple or compound, cylindrical, with 20-90 spikelets radiating horizontally or ascending; stalks 4-12, unequal; bracts 3-10, leaf-like, much longer than inflorescence.

Spikelet

Numerous, flat, linear, 1/4 to 1 inch long, 5-25 flowered; scales loosely overlapping, keeled, golden-brown or "straw" color, slender pointed.

Fruit

Achene, unequally linear-3-sided, less than 1/12 inch long.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist, open ground of meadows and fields; stream, pond and lake borders; sandy or gravelly soils.

Distribution

Principally in the east 4/5 of Kansas.

Additional Notes