Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

WHITETINGE SEDGE

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Carex albicans Willd. ex Spreng. var. albicans

[=Carex artitecta Mack.]

Jefferson County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 2-20 inches

Family: Cyperaceae - Sedge Family

Flowering Period: April, May

Culms:

Ascending, as long or longer than leaves, triangular.

Leaves:

Blades 4 to 16 inches long, to 1/10 inch wide, ascending to more commonly arched outward; margins flat or somewhat rolled under.

Sheaths:

Loose, tip shallowly concave.

Ligules:

Short, broadly V-shaped.

Inflorescences:

Lowermost bract leaf-like, shorter than inflorescence; terminal spike staminate, sessile to short-stalked, linear, 1/6 to 1/2 inch long, 1/25 to 1/15 inch wide; staminate scales elliptic to egg-shaped, 1/10 to 1/6 inch long, straw-colored or green, often tinged dark reddish-purple, white margined, midrib usually not reaching tip of scale; lateral spikes 1-4, pistillate, closely overlapping, sessile or nearly so, broadly egg-shaped in outline, 1/10 to 1/3 inch long; pistillate scales egg-shaped, tapering to pointed tip, dark brown or purplish; midrib green; margins narrow, white; perigynia 4-12, densely spaced, conspicuous, elliptic in outline, 1/10 to 1/8 inch long, yellowish-green or pale green, minutely hairy, equaling or slightly exceeding scales.

Fruits:

Achenes, tiny, triangular, brown, 1-seeded; stigmas 3.

Habitat:

Wooded slopes, woodland clearings, under cedars; partial shade; mostly acidic sandstone or granite soils.

Distribution:

East 1/3 of Kansas.

Comments:

Forms dense tufts.

Whitetinge sedge inflorescence