FIELD ID CHARACTERISTICS:
All Carex spp. have "v" shaped leaf blades with distinctive keels. All sedges also have triangular flowering stems (in cross-section). Identification to species requires mature fruits and seeds (achenes).
Description: A medium to small, spreading, grass-like sedge usually 0.3 to 0.9 m tall. Stems solid and triangular.
Leaves: Wide leaves with distinct linear indent, or keel, at midrib.
Flowers/Fruit: Densely packed, fat perigynia in seedheads. Inflorescence contains male and female flowers crowded in separate cylindrical clusters on the same plant. All Carex species share the feature of seeds (achenes) being completely encompassed by an outer covering (perigynium). Flowers and fruits April through June.
Habit and Range: Ditches, damp meadows, depression swamps, bottomlands; sometimes drier places. Most common in the Piedmont. Rare to uncommon in the western Piedmont, Mountains, and western Coastal Plain.
