Fringed Sedge (Carex crinita)
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: May-July.
- Field Marks: This distinctive sedge has long, drooping, narrow spikes with slender, projecting scales subtending each perigynium.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, wet prairies, swamps, sloughs.
- Habit: Perennial herb with thickened rootstocks, growing in dense clumps.
- Stems: Erect, triangular, rough to the touch or smooth, up to 4 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated, narrow, rough to the touch along the margins, up to 1/2 inch broad.
- Flowers: Male and female flowers borne separately; the male usually in slender, erect spikes up to 2 1/2 inches long; the female in drooping spikes up to 4 inches long, with projecting scales subtending each perigynium.
- Scales: Narrow, tapering to a slender, toothed awn 2 or more times longer than the perigynium.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; the perigynium ellipsoid to ovoid to nearly spherical, up to 1/6 inch long, with a minute, toothless beak.
- Fruits: Achenes obovoid, granular, up to 1/8 inch long.
- Notes: The seeds are eaten by waterfowl.
Previous Species -- Longhair Sedge (Carex comosa)
Return to Species List -- Group 3
Next Species -- Crested Sedge (Carex cristatella)