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, grass-like, blue-green leaved sedge usually 0.6 to 1.2 m tall. Stems solid and triangular.
Leaves: Blue-green leaves with distinct linear indent, or keel, at midrib. Leaves coated beneath with whitish glaucous coating.
Flowers/Fruit: Drooping, spiky, whitish 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 May through June.
Habit and Range: Sunny or partly sunny marshes, blackwater acidic streamheads, wet ditches primarily in the Coastal Plain.
