Crested Sedge (Carex cristatella)
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: May-July.
- Field Marks: This species has spikelets more or less spherical, and perigynia broadly lanceolate.
- Habitat: Wet meadows, wet prairies, swamps, along streams, around ponds, roadside ditches.
- Habit: Perennial herb with thickened rootstocks.
- Stems: Erect, rough to the touch, up to 3 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated, narrow, shorter than the stems, smooth, up to 1/4 inch broad.
- Flowers: Male and female borne separately; the male few at the base of the female spikelets; the spikelets crowded, spherical or nearly so, up to 1/3 inch in diameter.
- Scales: Lanceolate, pointed or rounded at the tip, shorter than the perigynia.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Enclosed in a perigynium; the perigynium flat, wing-margined, broadly lanceolate, minutely toothed near the tip, up to 1/16 inch broad.
- Fruits: Achenes triangular, smooth.
- Notes: The achenes are eaten by waterfowl. Aquatic and Wetland Plants of Southwestern United States by Correll and Correll (1975) does not attribute this species to Oklahoma or Texas.
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