Thin-fruited Sedge (Carex flaccosperma)
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: May-June.
- Field Marks: This species differs from the other sedges with bluish or pale green leaves by its beakless perigynia at least 1/6 inch long.
- Habitat: Wet woods, swamps.
- Habit: Perennial herb with thickened rootstocks.
- Stems: Sprawling or erect, smooth, bluish or pale green, up to 1 foot long.
- Leaves: Elongated, narrow, smooth, bluish or pale green, up to 1/2 inch broad.
- Flowers: Male and female borne separately; the male in a separate erect spike up to 1 inch long, the female crowded into short, cylindrical spikes, up to 1 inch long.
- Scales: Narrow, short-awned, shorter than the perigynia.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; the perigynium ellipsoid, without a beak, up to 1/4 inch long.
- Fruits: Achenes ellipsoid, about 1/12 inch long.
- Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl. Atlas of the Flora of the Great Plains by McGregor, et al. (1977) does not attribute this plant to region 5.
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