General: Perennial, densely tufted herb from short fibrous roots; stems 30-100 cm tall, usually a few together, about equalling the leaves, the lower ones reduced, 3-angled, the angles winged and saw-toothed above.
Leaves: Sheaths cross-wrinkled; blades 3 to 6 per stem, borne on the lower 1/2, or sometimes the lower 3/4 of the stem, flat, 5-11 mm wide, the lower ones reduced.
Flowers: Spikes numerous, usually densely aggregated into a cylindrical or egg-shaped, 3- to 10-cm long head, usually more or less separate below, egg-shaped, 2-3.5 cm long, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the inconspicuous male flowers towards the tips; bracts short, inconspicuous, the lowest one usually hairlike, prolonged, 2-10 cm long.
Fruits: Perigynia narrowly triangular, 4-5.2 mm long, 1.5-1.8 mm wide, plano-convex, strongly nerved, spreading, yellow to brownish-translucent, smooth, very short-stalked, finely toothed above, the beaks about the length of the bodies, bidentate; female scales egg-shaped, narrower, about the length of the perigynia, brownish-translucent, the midribs greenish and prolonged into awns, the margins translucent; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.5-2 mm long.
Swamps, ditches, streambanks, lakeshores and wet meadows in the lowland, steppe and montane zones; frequent in BC S of 56degreeN, rare on the Queen Charlotte Islands; amphiberingian, N to AK, E to NF and S to ME, MA, PA, NC, GA, AL, MS, OK, NM, AZ and OR; E Asia.
View a video on identification of Carex stipata by Tony Reznicek (University of Michigan).
Ecology
Ecological Framework for Carex stipata
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
