Carex gravida Bailey 



PREGNANT SEDGE 



Cyperaceae 



A. PRESENT LEGAL OR OTHER FORMAL STATUS 

 L FEDERAL STATUS 



a. U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE: None. 



b. U.S. FOREST SERVICE: None. 



2. STATE: G5 SI (critically imperiled in Montana). 



B. DESCRIPTION 



L GENERAL NONTECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Pregnant sedge is a 



grass-like plant that forms clumps of stems up to 6 dm (2 ft.) tall from short 

 root stocks (Figure 7, Appendix E-5). Leaves are 4-8 mm wide and clustered 

 near the base of the plant. Flowers are clustered in egg-shaped spikes ca. 1 cm 

 long, the female flowers (perigynia) occupying most of the spike with a few 

 male flowers at the tip. Spikes are aggregated at the top of the stem and 

 subtended by 2-3 leaf-like bracts, shorter than the inflorescence. Scales 

 subtending each perigynia are oval with a long point at the tip. The perigynia 

 are 4-5 mm long and gradually tapering to a beak that is serrated on the edges 

 and notched at the tip. There are few or no nerves visible on the outer face of 

 the perigynia. There are 2 stigmas, and the seed is 2-sided. 



2. TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Leaf sheaths loose, nodulose-septate on 

 back, with nerveless inner band truncate at summit; the lax blades 3.5-8 mm 

 broad; culms thin and sharply angled scabrous, 0.3-1 m high; spikes greenish 

 to drab, subglobose, approximate in a dense to slightly open ellipsoid head 1-3 

 cm long; scales long-acuminate to awn-tipped, nearly or quite as long and 

 three-fourths as broad as perigynia; perigynia firm, drab or pale brown, 

 narrowly to broadly ovate, 3.5-5.5 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, gradually tapering 

 from near the middle into a beak with sharp teeth ca. 1 mm long, nerveless on 

 inner, faintly nerved or ner\'eless on outer face (Gray 1 970). 



3. LOCAL FIELD CHARACTERS: Carex is a large and difficult genus, and 

 there are many species similar to C. gravida. It is not included in Dom (1984), 

 by which it keys to C. hoodii, a species which is also present in the study area. 

 The awn-tipped scales of the perigynia distinguish it fi-om C hoodii. It is in 

 the Bracteosae subgenus, and might be superficially confused with members of 



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