OVALHEAD SEDGE 



Ca'rex festivel'la, syn. "C. fes'tiva" * 



GL4 



Flower head (compact group of up to 

 20 spikes) terminal, somewhat 

 rounded or egg-shaped, up to about 1 

 in. long, inconspicuously bracted at 

 base 



Flowers without petals or outer flower 

 parts (sepals), solitary in axils of thin- 

 papery, scalelike bracts, of 2 kinds: 

 male (staminate) at spike bases, and 

 female (pistillate) toward spike tips 



Female flowers several to many in 

 each spike, each with 2 threadlike 

 pollen-receiving organs (stigmas), seed- 

 producing, borne in the axil of an egg- 

 shaped, blunt to somewhat sharp- 

 pointed, chestnut or brownish black 

 bract 



Male flowers each with 3 stamens and 

 borne in axil of a bract similar to that 

 of female flower 



"Seed" (achene) lens-shaped, en- 

 closed in a flattened sac (perigynium) ; 

 perigynium a little less than % in. long, 

 egg-shaped, wing-margined, thin- 

 walled, beaked; beak 2-toothed at tip, 

 about ^ to K length of perigynium, 

 conspicuous in the flower head 



Leaves 3-ranked, grasslike, shorter 

 than flower-head stalks, up to about % 

 in. wide, bright green 



Stalks (culms) up to 40 in. high, 

 tufted, rather slender, 3-sided, solid, 

 jointless 



Rootstocks-^short-creeping, dark-col- 

 ored, perennial 



Roots fibrous 



1 Of western United States authors, not Dewey. 



