E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

Carex microglochin Wahlenb.
few-seeded fen sedge (fewseeded bog sedge)
Cyperaceae (Sedge family)

Introduction to Vascular Plants

© Adolf Ceska  Email the photographer   (Photo ID #5553)

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Distribution of Carex microglochin
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SUBTAXA PRESENT IN BC
Carex microglochin ssp. microglochin

Species Information

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General:
Perennial herb from slender rhizomes; stems 1 to 3, stiff, erect, 2-25 cm tall, much longer than the leaves.
Leaves:
Sheaths brown below, tight, the ligules much longer than wide; blades 4 to 8, clustered near the base, 0.3-0.6 mm wide, margins in-rolled, stiff, erect to ascending, the tips blunt.
Flowers:
Spikes solitary, 5-12 mm long, 5-9 mm wide, with both female and male flowers, the few erect male flowers towards the tips, the lower 3 to 12 flowers female, reflexed; bractless.
Fruits:
Perigynia few, narrowly lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, pale green, brownish-green or straw-coloured, soon reflexed, more or less circular in cross-section, membranaceous, smooth, obscurely many-nerved, unstalked, the beaks not differentiated from the bodies; female scales narrowly egg-shaped, round-tipped, wider than and about 1/2 as long as the perigynia, light chestnut-brown, early deciduous, the margins sometimes translucent; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 2-2.5 mm long.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Habitat / Range

Shorelines, streambanks, calcareous fens and wet meadows in the montane and subalpine zones; infrequent in BC east of the Coast-Cascade Mountains and N of 52degreeN; circumboreal, N to AK, YT and NT and E to NF; Greenland, Iceland, Eurasia, S South America.

Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

Ecology

Ecological Framework for Carex microglochin

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)

Site Information
Value / Class

Minimum

Average

Maximum

Elevation (metres) 470 1310 2060
Slope Gradient (%) 0 13 60
Aspect (degrees)
[0 - N; 90 - E; 180 - S; 270 - W]
35 17 360
Soil Moisture Regime (SMR)
[0 - very xeric; 4 - mesic;
8 - hydric]
2 6 7
Modal Nutrient Regime
Class
D
Number of field plots
 species was recorded in:
8
Modal BEC Zone Class
ESSF
All BEC Zones (# of stations/zone) species was recorded in: BWBS(2), ESSF(2), SBS(1)

Climate

The climate type for this species, as reported in the: "British Columbia plant species codes and selected attributes. Version 6 Database" (Meidinger et al. 2008), is not evaluated, unknown or variable.

Taxonomic and Nomenclatural Links

Additional Photo Sources

General References