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Carex folliculata - (image 1 of 6)

Taxonomy

Family: Cyperaceae

Section Rostrales

Habitat

Wet woods and meadows, swamps.

Associates

Distribution

Newfoundland and Quebec to WI, south to FL and LA.

Morphology

Perennial to 1 m or more, forming large clumps. Leaves 4-16 mm wide, yellow green; bract sheaths prolonged at the mouth; terminal spike staminate, to 2.5 cm long, peduncled; pistillate spikes 2-5, separate, erect, subglobose, 1.5-3 cm, the lower on long peduncles, upper on shorter peduncles; bracts leaf-like, to 8 mm wide, surpassing the stems; perigynia slenderly subulate, 10-15 x 2-3 mm, gradually tapering into beak, teeth erect to merely spreading; style persistent on the achene, becoming bony or cartilaginous; achene trigonous; stigmas 3.

Notes

Fruiting June to July

Wetland indicator: OBL

In botany a follicle is a type of fruit that opens at maturity along a single seam. Perhaps to Linnaeus the perigynia looked a bit like the follicles of members of the dogbane family (milkweed, indian hemp).

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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