CYPERACEAE 



SEDGE FAMILY 



BUR SEDGE 



Carcx Grayii Carey 



The Sedge family is a very large family of grass- 

 like plants, but except for those members which are 

 used ornamentally, it is of little economic importance. 

 The family includes 

 the Bulrushes, Cot- 

 ton Grass, Umbrella 

 Plant and a few others, 

 but primarily the true 

 Sedges, which, with 

 about 100 species oc- 

 curring in Illinois, far 

 outstrip all other 

 genera in number of 

 representatives in the 

 state. 



Though often mistaken for 



Grasses, the Sedges may usu- 

 ally be distinguished by their 



solid instead of hollow stems, 



and the leaf sheath margins 



which do not overlap but grow 



together into a tube around 



the stem. Also, the stems are 



usually, though not always, 



triangular, and the leaves are 



in 3 rows instead of 2. 



The Bur Sedge grows in wet woods and meadows 

 from western New England and Ontario to Iowa 

 and Missouri, and may be found from June to 

 September. The flowers are imperfect and always 

 in some form of spike. Each staminate flower 

 usually has 3 stamens, and each pistillate flower a 

 single pistil. The fruit is an akene, enclosed by a much inflated 

 ovoid organ peculiar to the genus and called the perigynium. 

 In this species it is smooth or downy, slightly more than one- 

 quarter inch in diameter above the base, and tapers to a sharp 

 2-toothed beak. It is usually necessary to examine the mature 

 fruit to determine Carex species with certainty, 



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