Carex crinita (Drooping sedge)

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Carex crinita Lam.

Drooping sedge, long-haired sedge, fringed sedge

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Commelinidae	Dayflowers and spiderworts, and several others
Order	Cyperales	Flowering plants including grasses
Family	Cyperaceae	Sedge family
Genus	Carex	The “true” sedges
Species	crinita	“Long-haired”

About plant names...

These sedges are native to North America. They have an affinity for wet, freshwater soils.

Plants: Drooping sedges are up to 4½′ (1.4 m) high, though I rarely see them that large, with stems that are triangular in cross-section. They usually appear in tufts.

Flowers/seeds: Each stem supports 3-5 narrow, cylindrical drooping carpellate seed spikes up to 4½″ (11 cm) in length and ¼″ (7 mm) in diameter. Tiny, white, filament-like flowers are visible on the carpellate spikes in Photo 6. The precise shape of the perigynia and pistillate scales on the carpellate spikes are an identifying feature. Each stem also contains up to 3 staminate spikes. Although past their prime, you can make out the male pollen-bearing structures on the staminate spikes in Photo 8.

Leaves: Leaves are ribbed, grass-like, M- or U-shaped in cross section, up to ⅜″ (1 cm) wide.

Carex crinita is easily confused with, and often found near, C. gynandra. “Easily confused” is 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.

1 · 9/20/2009 · Wild Gardens of Acadia, Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine · ≈ 14 × 9″ (35 × 23 cm)

2 · 6/2/2010 · J. Harry Rich State Forest, Groton, Massachusetts · ≈ 9 × 14″ (23 × 35 cm)

	*Carex arctata*	You are here Carex crinita	*Carex gynandra*
Common Name	drooping wood sedge	drooping sedge	nodding sedge
Plant	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.
Type	Wild	Wild	Wild

	*Carex gracillima*
Common Name	graceful sedge
Plant	8-36″ (20-91 cm) high.
Flowers	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

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.

Online References:

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The USDA Plants Database

Illinois Wildflowers

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

EFloras

References:

Arsenault, Matt; Mittelhauser, Glen H.; Cameron, Don; Dibble, Alison C.; Haines, Arthur; Rooney, Sally C.; and Weber, Jill E., Sedges of Maine: A Field Guide to Cyperaceae, University of Maine Press, 2013, p. 374

Knobel, Edward, Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges and Rushes of the United States, Dover Publications Inc., 1980, p. 69