GL6 



ELK SEDGE 



Ca'rex gey'eri 



Flower head (spike) solitary, cyan- 

 dric, terminal, light rust-colored 



Flowers without petals or outer flower 

 parts (sepals), solitary in axils of thin- 

 papery, scalelike bracts, of 2 kinds: 

 male (stamuiate) at top of spike, and 

 female (pistillate) at base of spike 



Male flowers with 3 stamens; each 

 flower in an oblong-egg-shaped, ribbed, 

 somewhat pointed or rounded bract 



Female flowers 2 or 3 in each head, 

 with 3 pollen-receiving organs (stig- 

 mas), seed-producing, each borne in 

 the axil of a short-bearded (awned), 

 straw-colored, transparent-papery- 

 margined bract 



"Seed" (achene) tightly enclosed in a 

 sac (perigynium); perigynium oblong, 

 triangular, smooth, shiny, 2-ribbed, 

 rounded at top, tipped with a small, 

 stout beak 



Leaves 3-ranked, grasslike, 2 or 3 

 to each stalk, erect, thick, flat, rough 

 on the edges-, sheath forming a tube 

 around stalk; stalk leaves developing 

 after the flowers 



Stalks (culms) sharply 3-angled, 

 slender, solid, up to about 16 in. high, 

 with rough edges 



Rootstock underground, 

 sca'ly, elongated, creeping 



Roots fibrous 



woody, 



Elk sedge, sometimes known as Geyer sedge, pine sedge, or un- 

 fortunately pinegrass and elkgrass, is a grasslike plant oelonging 

 to the sedge family (Cyperaceae) This sedge is the most abundant 

 of the comparatively few dry-land sedges, ranging from British 

 Columbia to Montana, Colorado, Utah, and northern California. It 



