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Carex flava - (image 1 of 5)

Taxonomy

Family: Cyperaceae

Section Ceratocystis  

Habitat

Bogs, wet meadows, fens

Associates

Distribution

Circumboreal; south to NJ, IN, ID, and British Columbia in North America.

Morphology

Tufted perennial to 80 cm high; leaves flat, 3-5.5 mm wide; terminal spike sessile or on a short peduncle, slender, staminate or with a few distal perigynia, to 24 mm; lateral spikes pistillate, 2-5, 6-17 mm, stout, bracts sheathless or nearly so and some exceeding the inflorescence; pistillate scale reddish-brown; perigynia inflated, 3.7-6.2 mm, yellowish toward the base, strongly several-nerved above, mostly spreading and falcate-recurved, gradually tapering to the beak; achene trigonous, 1.1-1.4 mm, occupying the proximal end of the perigynium.

Notes

Fruiting June to August

Wetland indicator: OBL

Uncommon and restricted to the Indiana portion of the Chicago region covered by Swink and Wilhelm. A common component of calcareous wetlands in the east. The long curved beak and contrasting reddish-brown color of the pistillate scales help distinguish this species from C. cryptolepis.

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

Swink, F. and G. Wilhelm. 1994. Plants of the Chicago Region.
Indiana Academy of Science. The Morton Arboretum. Lisle, Illinois.

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