Common Hemicarpha (Hemicarpha micrantha)
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: July-October.
- Field Marks: This is one of the tiniest sedges in the region, usually growing no more than 3 inches tall. There are usually 2-3 spikelets borne on each stem.
- Habitat: Sandy banks of rivers, around ponds, in sloughs.
- Habit: Tiny annual herb with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Slender, smooth, up to 3 inches tall.
- Leaves: Very narrow, near the base of the plant, smooth, much shorter than the stems.
- Flowers: 1 per scale, with many scales per spikelet, with 1-4 spikelets per stem, borne near the top of the stem but with the stem extending past them; spikelets ovoid, more or less rounded at the tip; scales brown, obovate.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 1.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, style 2-cleft.
- Fruits: Achenes oblong, rounded at the tip, pale brown.
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