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 large, upright, clumping, grass-like, shade- and water-loving sedge usually 0.5 to 1.2 m tall. Stems solid and triangular.
Leaves: Fine leaves with distinct linear indent, or keel, at midrib.
Flowers/Fruit: Each perigynium has a long scale attached, hence the "fringed" appearance. 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 May through August.
Habit and Range: Favors shaded or partly shaded wet places. Found in swamp forests, bottomlands, marshes, seeps, margins of lakes and rivers, and beaver ponds. Generally common statewide, but less so in the northwestern part of North Carolina and the outer eastern counties.
COMMON CONFUSIONS:
The similar Carex gynandra (nodding sedge) has similar achenes (seeds) but occurs only in the mountains and has sandpapery rough leaf sheaths.
