OF THE CAROLINAS & GEORGIA

Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Monocots: Commelinids: Poales

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (10/20/20):
Carex pensylvanica   FAMILY Cyperaceae   Go to FSUS key



INCLUDED WITHIN PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Carex pensylvanica   FAMILY Cyperaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 030-17-044:

Carex pensylvanica var. pensylvanica   FAMILY Cyperaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN & ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIANT Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)

Carex pennsylvanica

 

COMMON NAME:
Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge


         To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913    pnd_cape6_001_lvd

        

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm230328_2148

March    Pickens County    SC

Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve

At stem tip, a single staminate spike 0.5-1" long; below this 1-3 pistillate spikes, per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm230328_2151

March    Pickens County    SC

Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve

Spikes stalkless or nearly so, dark purplish brown at flowering time [here w developing fruit], per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm230328_2159

March    Pickens County    SC

Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve

Plants form loose clumps and create colonies from spreading rhizomes, per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm230328_2162

March    Pickens County    SC

Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve

Bases wrapped in a red sheath that splits and has thread-like fibers along edges (“fibrillose”), per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

L.L. (Chick) Gaddy    llg_pennsedgemthardygap

May?    Jackson County    NC

Here seen in a beech gap forest at Mt Hardy Gap, Blue Ridge Pkwy, MP 426, per Alpine South: Plants and Plant Communities of the High Elevations of the Southern Appalachians (Gaddy, 2014).

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm0407t_11

July    Mitchell County    NC

The Roan Highlands

A low-growing grass-like sedge w orderly drooping stems & 2-4 narrow leaves, per Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont (Spira, 2011).

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm0407t_15

July    Mitchell County    NC

The Roan Highlands

Low-growing clumps of very fine linear foliage, spreading by stolons, per Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002).

image of Carex pensylvanica, Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge

JK Marlow    jkm0407u_18

July    Mitchell County    NC

The Roan Highlands

 

 

WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (10/20/20):
Carex pensylvanica   FAMILY Cyperaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Carex pensylvanica   FAMILY Cyperaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 030-17-044:
Carex pensylvanica var. pensylvanica   FAMILY Cyperaceae

INCLUDED WITHIN & ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIANT Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Carex pennsylvanica

 

Find by SCIENTIFIC NAME:

264

Grass, Sedge, or Rush
Perennial
Monoecious

Habitat: Dry to moist woodlands and forests, grassy balds, shale barrens, rock outcrops, per Weakley's Flora

Native north of the Carolinas & Georgia

map
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.

Click here to see a map showing all occurrences known to SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria. (Zoom in to see more detail.)

LEAVES:
Simple
Basal?

RHIZOMES? STOLONS?
Loosely cespitose [growing in dense tufts, clumping] from elongate rhizomes

FLOWER:
Spring/Summer
Perianth absent
3 stamens
Superior ovary
Unisexual

Inflorescences: spikes (terminal spike staminate; 1-3 lateral spikes pistillate)

FRUIT:
Spring/Summer
Yellowish/Purplish
Nutlet

 

TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!



 


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