Scientific Name
Carex pellita Muhl. ex Willd. (Synonyms: Carex lanuginosa)
Common Name(s)
Woolly sedge
Tribe / Family Name
Cyperaceae
Flowering Period
June to September
Symbol
CAPE42
Description
Woolly sedge is a native cool-season perennial grass-like plant that forms well-developed creeping rhizomes. Culms range from 15–70 cm in height and has an erect growth habit and sharply triangular (3-angled) stems. Inflorescence contains 1–3 (usually 2) terminal, staminate spikes that are 2–5 cm long and slender; 1–3 lateral, pistillate spikes that are 1–4 cm long, 5–8 mm wide, cylindrical, many flowered, sessile or nearly so, and well separated from the terminal, staminate spikes. Bracts are erect or nearly so and equaling or slightly surpassing the inflorescences. Perigynia are 2.4–5.2 mm long, up to 2.8 mm wide, broadly ovoid, stiff walled, inflated, densely covered in velvety or silky hairs, and many-nerved (nerves are hidden by pubescence); beaks are up to 1.6 mm long, deeply bidentate, and forked (teeth up to 0.8 mm long). Pistillate scales are lanceolate to ovate, acuminate to awned, purplish with a pale midstripe, and shorter to longer than the perigynia. Stigmas 3. Fruit is an achene (loosely filling the perigynium), trigonous, and yellowish brown to medium brown. Leaves are up to 5 mm wide, 2–5 per culm, flat or M-shaped in cross section, and yellow-green. Sheaths are glabrous, hyaline ventrally, shiny reddish on the lower ones, deeply concave at the mouth, and disintegrating and becoming cross-filamentose.
General Info
This slender wetland grass-like plant that often forms dense stands can be found along stream banks, wet meadows, riparian corridors, swamps, ponds, and somewhat dry ground.
Similar Species
Woolly sedge can look similar to woollyfruit sedge (Carex lasiocarpa). However, unlike woolly sedge, woollyfruit sedge has obtusely triangular stems, inrolled or folded leaves, and perigynia that are not forked.
Picture of growth habit.
Inflorescence contains 1-3 (usually 2) terminal, staminate spikes, and 1-3 lateral, pistillate spikes.
Close-up picture of the perigynia (center), pistillate scale (left), and stigmas (top).
Close-up picture of hairy perigynia.
Illustration of woolly sedge. USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. <i>An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. 3 vols.</i> Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. Vol. 1: 427.