GL7 



NEBRASKA SEDGE 



Ca'rex nebrasken'sis 



Flower heads (spikes) several, of 2 

 kinds: male (staminate) 1 or 2 on 

 top, above the female spikes, stalked, 

 up to \Yi in. long; female (pistillate), 

 more or less stalked, up to 2% in. 

 long, up to 5 in number 



Male flowers numerous, each with 3 

 stamens, and borne in axil of a bract 



Female flowers numerous, each borne 

 in axil of a bract, usually crowded, 

 ascending, each with 2 threadlike 

 pollen-receiving organs (stigmas) which 

 soon wither and fall 



Flower bracts lance-shaped, blackish, 

 tapering-pointed, each with a promi- 

 nent, light-colored midrib 



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

 closed in a sac (perigynium) ; perigyn- 

 ium ribbed, leathery, greenish straw- 

 colored, rounded and almost stalkless 

 at base, narrowed at tip into a short, 

 2-toothed beak 



Stalks (culms) up to about 40 in. 

 high, 3 1 sidcd, solid, jointless, arising 

 from center of previous year's tuft of 

 dried leaves 



Leaves grasslike, 3-ranked, flat, very 

 variable in length, sometimes about as 

 long as culm, usually about % in. wide, 

 pale green, with sheathing, pimple- 

 dotted (nodulose) bases 



Rdotstocks long-creeping, perennial 



Roots rather coarse, fibrous 



Nebraska sedge, one of the commonest western sedges inhabiting 

 wet situations, ranges from South Dakota and Kansas to New Mex- 

 ico, California, and British Columbia. Although this species is 

 more important in the States west of Nebraska, it is called Nebraska 

 sedge and Carex nebraskensis because the first specimens of it ap- 

 pear to have been collected in what is now that State. It occurs 



