124 
FRANCIS RAMALEY 
stone or shale. All of these various bodies of water afford stations for 
sedges. The many artificial reservoirs for irrigation show a scant shore 
vegetation because of the frequent great changes in water level. 
The term sedge moor as used by the present writer is meant to include 
all communities in wet soil dominated by Carices and often having a con- 
siderable amount of moss.^ In some places it dries out to a degree in late 
August, but is saturated or nearly saturated during most of the growing 
season. According to Robbins (9), the soil water has a slightly acid re- 
action. 
Sedge moor is an early stage in the hydrarch sequence. As the soil 
becomes built up through peat formation, or as the related stream or lake 
is lowered so that the water table sinks farther below the surface, a willow 
thicket develops or else a wet meadow. If it is the willow thicket that is 
produced, it will, in turn, be followed by meadow, and this again, in moun- 
tain districts, may be replaced by coniferous forest. 
In Colorado, as pointed out by Robbins (9), Sphagnum bog does not 
occur. The nearest approach to it is sedge moor. It is true that Sphag- 
num moss is found locally in montane and subalpine situations, but it is 
not abundant. Most of the characteristic plants of bogs of the eastern 
United States are not present in Colorado at all ; a few exist in isolated lo- 
calities. 
In all sedge moors Carices cover from 60 to 90 percent of the soil surface. 
Mosses are abundant, and liverworts (Marchantia) also, except at the higher 
elevations. Grasses are generally present, differing in species with the 
life zone; and a number of dicotyledons occur, chiefly of the Polygonaceae, 
Alsinaceae, Ranunculaceae, Gentianaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Carduaceae, 
and Cichoriaceae. As would be expected from likeness of edaphic condi- 
tions, there is considerable floristic similarity in sedge moors, even between 
those rather widely separated in altitude. 
Three sedge moor associations may be recognized in northern Colorado, 
named in accordance with the life zones in which they commonly occur. 
The species, so far as known to the present writer, are listed for each asso- 
ciation, — roughly in order of importance. 
{a) Plains- Foothill Sedge Moor Association: Carex lanuginosa, C. ne- 
braskensis, C. aquatilis, C. rostrata, C. canescens, C. stipata, C. lasiocarpa, 
C. vesicaria, C. tenuirostris. 
(b) Montane- Subalpine Sedge Moor Association: Carex aquatilis (char- 
acteristic). — There are two societies. The Montane Society has the follow- 
ing secondary species: Carex rostrata, C. vesicaria, C. lanuginosa, C. can- 
escens, C. halleri, C. illota, C. lasiocarpa, C. tenuirostris, C. disperma, C. 
^ Along streams the proportion of moss is often very high and the association becomes 
so modified as to be more properly designated as moss moor. The same term may be ap- 
plied to that part of the moor of certain lakes which is closest to the water. High-altitude 
lakes show often other types of moor also, viz.: a meadow moor and a heath moor. 
