GREAT PRICKLY SEDGE 



6i 



ground occurs. It orows in moist hollows by the roadside, around 

 ponds, pools, and in ditches, as well as more generally and profusely in 

 wet meadows, marshes, and bogs. 



The stems are few, 3-angled, with sharp, rough edges and convex 

 sides, from a tufted base, and stoloniferous, with creeping runners. 

 The leaves are rather broad and Hat, glossy, and fairly long. 



The flowers are in a 

 more or less c)lindrical 

 compound spike with 

 many crowded flowers, 

 the male ones above, 

 spreading, with bristle- 

 like bracts which are 

 longer than the spike, and 

 suberect. The fruit is 

 egg-shaped, coming to a 

 sharp point, plano-convex, 

 pale-green, with an egg- 

 shaped, brownish nut. 

 The glumes are pale- 

 brown, with a roughish 

 awn. This tall sedge is 

 i-i^ ft. or more in height. 

 Flowers are found in May, 

 up till August. The plant 

 is a perennial, propagated 

 by suckers. 



This common sedge 

 has a floral mechanism 

 similar to C. paiiicitlafa, 

 and is likewise; proterogyn- 



ous and pollinated by the wind. The fruit is a nut, and when it 

 is ri]ie it falls to the ground close to the parent plant. 



Great Prickly Sedge is a peat-loving plant growing in a peat soil, 

 or pelophilous and flourishes on clay soil. 



Beetles are commonly found on this and allied sedges, e.g. Dromius 

 lojioiceps, D. sigiiia, Donacia obscura, D. thalassina, D. iniprcssa, D. 

 vii/q;aris. D. affiiiis, Cliastocnevia Salilhers^i. Several Lepidoptera are 

 fond of sedges, such as .Smoky Wainscot [Lcncania inipnrd). Small 

 Wainscot {Nonag7-ia fiih'a), Jlydrc/ia iucaiia, Gold Spot {P/iisia 

 festiicd), Elachista gleichenel/a, /:. kihuiinetla. Ji. rhynchosporcUa, E. 



Plioto. Flatters & Cariiftt 



Great Puicklv Sedge (Carcx vnlpina, L.) 



