Plant: Nodding sedge is up to 4½′ (1.4 m) high, though specimens I have seen are a good deal shorter. Stems are triangular in cross section. They usually occur in tufts.
Flowers/seeds: Each stem supports two to five arched,
narrow, cylindrical drooping carpellate seed spikes up to 4″ (10 cm) in length and
⅛-¼″ (3-9 mm) in diameter.
Each stem also contains up to three staminate spikes.
Leaves: Leaves are U-shaped, grass-like, up to ⅜″ (1 cm) wide.
Carex gynandra is easily confused with, and often found near, C. crinita.
“Easily confused” is something of an understatement: distinguishing these species requires a hand lens or scanner
and a penchant for obscure botanical terminology.
Scholarly papers have been written to provide evidence that they really are different.
6/16/2013 · Birch Point State Park, Owl’s Head, Maine · ≈ 6 × 8″ (14 × 20 cm)
Occurring in dense tufts, plants are up to 3′ (1 m) high.
Up to 4½′ (1.4 m) tall.
Up to 4½′ (1.4 m) tall.
Flowers
Male (staminate) and female (pistillate) spikes are separate. The topmost spike is unisexual, staminate, ⅞-3 ⨉ 1/16-⅛″ (2.5-8 cm ⨉ 3-4 mm). 2-5 pistillate (also called carpellate) spikes appear lower on the stem. Each spike is up to 3″ (8 cm) long, and slender. Young spikes point upward, but they droop with age.
Drooping narrow cylindrical heads up to 4½″ (11 cm) long and ¼″ (7 mm) in diameter. Carpellate scales are pale, truncate to notched at apex, with rough-textured awns. 1-3 staminate spikes per stem.
2-5 carpellate narrow, cylindrical spikes per stem. Each spike is ⅞-4″ (2.4-10 cm) long, ⅛-¼″ (3-9 mm) in diameter. Scales on the carpels are pale- to copper brown. There are 1-3 staminate spikes per stem.
Leaves
Basal or nearly so. Grasslike leaves are ⅛-⅜″ (3-10 mm) wide. At the base, they are encased in a sheath that is pink to reddish purple. Younger leaves have an ‘M’ or ‘W’-shaped cross-section.
M or U-shaped in cross-section, ⅛-⅜″ (4-10 mm) wide.
⅛-⅜″ (4-10 mm) wide, U-shaped.
Stem
Triangular stem cross-section. Basal leaf sheaths are smooth.
Rough-textured, with a triangular cross-section. Basal leaf sheaths are rough.
Fruit
Achenes are ~1/16″ long ⨉ 1/32-1/16″ wide (1.7-2.6 ⨉ 0.8-1.7 mm).
Perigynia are spreading, slightly inflated obovoid(widest above the middle and truncate), 1/16-⅛″ (2-4 mm) long.
Perigynia are oval-shaped, tapering to a small beak.
Range/ Zones
Habitats
Rich, damp forested areas.
Bottomland prairies, moist upland prairies, margins of bodies of water, spring branches, fens.
Marshes, wet forests, swamps, seeps, and roadside ditches. Perhaps a little more weedy and abundant in acidic soils than C. crinita.
A stalk emerging above the leaves, 8-35″ (20-90 cm) long, contains both carpellate (seed-bearing) and staminate (pollen-bearing) flowers, with the carpellate ones uppermost. Each stalk has 2-5 spikes, each on a stem up to 1½″ (4 cm) long. Each spike is 0.0 mils (0 µm) × 0.0 mils (0 µm) in size.
Leaves
Basal, ⅛-⅜″ (3-10 mm) wide, and alternate. Leaves may be smooth or rough in texture. A sheath at the base of the plant is often red or purple in color.
Fruit
Carpellate spikes form seed clusters called achenes. Each such cluster is wrapped in a perigynium. They appear from late spring to mid-summer.
Range/ Zones
Habitats
Common in damp forests and meadows
Type
Wild
Like most Carex, stems are triangular in cross section. This one is rather squashed from cutting.
Carpellate spikes (left) are the most prominent. Staminate spikes (right) are smaller and may not persist for as long.
The carpellate spike consists of pistillate scales, (left), with awns that have notched tips; and perigynia(right). Each perigynium houses a developing achene (seed). This plant was found in the fall, but in the spring, tiny pistallate (female) flowers emerge, like sinuous filaments, from the beak of perigynium.
Representative perigynia, achenes, and scales.Carex crinita (left): pistillate scale (a), perigynium (b), achene (g); C. gynandra (right): pistillate scale (c), perigynium (d), achenes (e, g). Standley, Lisa A., “A Clarification of the Status of Carex crinita and C. gynandra,” Rhodora, Journal of the New England Botanical Club, 1983, Vol. 85, No. 841.