Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

HEAVY SEDGE

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Carex gravida Bailey

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 1 to 2 feet

Family: Cyperaceae - Sedge Family

Flowering Period: April, May, June

Also Called:

Heavy-fruit caric sedge.

Culms:

Erect or ascending, slender, prominently triangular, light green, rough beneath inflorescences.

Leaves:

Blades 4-6, flat, to 12 inches long, less than 1/3 inch wide, rough above, glabrous below; tips pointed

Sheaths:

Open, loose, green and white spotted.

Ligules:

Prominent

Inflorescences:

Heads, dense, oblong or egg-shaped, .5 to 1.5 inch long, less than 3/5 inch wide, pale, composed of 5-15 rounded spikes; bracts bristle-like, shorter than heads or lowest about as long; spikes generally touching, sometimes interrupted by intervening space, sessile, appearing bristly; staminate flowers above pistillate flowers; pistillate scales ovate-lanceolate, dull green to brown, midvein conspicuous, about as long as perigynia, awn-tipped; perigynia to 15 per spike, oval to nearly circular, flattened, dull green to pale brown; margins greenish; beaks 2-toothed; staminate scales narrow, pale brown; tips gradually tapered to points.

Fruits:

Achenes, small, flat, round, brownish yellow, 1-seeded; stigmas 2, reddish brown.

Habitat:

Damp or drying prairies, open woods, swales, and roadside ditches, most abundant on limestone or chalk soils.

Distribution:

Throughout Kansas.

Heavy sedge