Description: This native perennial sedge is
1½–3½' tall, forming a dense tuft of leaves and flowering
culms. The culms are light green, 3-angled, and glabrous (although slightly
rough underneath the inflorescence). Several alternate leaves are located along
the lower half of each culm; they are ascending to widely spreading. The narrow
blades of the leaves are up to 5 mm. across and 3' long; they are light green,
glabrous,
furrowed in the middle, and rough-textured along their margins. The leaf
sheaths wrap tightly around their culms. The outer two sides of each sheath are
light green, veined, and glabrous, while the inner side is membranous and
usually convex at its apex. Each fertile culm terminates in a relatively
straight inflorescence about 2-5" long and about 2/3" across. The inflorescence
consists of several short lateral spikelets along its central stalk; adjacent
spikelets usually overlap each other, although some of the lower spikelets are
sufficiently separated to produce short gaps between adjacent pairs. At the
base of some spikelets, there is a bristle-like bract up to 2" long; usually it
is much shorter than this. Each spikelet has a few male florets at its apex,
while the female florets and their perigynia are located below. On each
spikelet, the perigynia are ascending to widely spreading. Each perigynium is
2-3 mm. long and approximately 1.5 mm. across at maturity; it is
ovoid-flattened, plano-convex, and glabrous, tapering into a short beak at its
apex and well-rounded at its bottom. The pistillate scales are about the same
length as the perigynia, but they are more narrow and lanceolate. Each
pistillate scale has a central green vein and membranous margins, terminating
in a short awn. The blooming period occurs from late spring to early summer;
the florets are cross-pollinated by the wind. At maturity, the inflorescence of
this sedge changes from green to brown or yellowish-brown. The achenes are
1.0–1.5 mm. long and about one-half as much across, ovoid-flattened in
shape, and glabrous; there is usually a tiny knob-like projection at the base
of each achene and sometimes at its apex. Achenes within the perigynia are
distributed by wind or water. The root system is short-rhizomatous and fibrous.
This sedge sometimes forms colonies of plants.
Cultivation: The preference is full or partial sun
and wet to moist conditions. Different kinds of soil are tolerated, including
those that contain loam, clay-loam, and gravel. Sometimes this robust sedge can
spread aggressively, especially in disturbed areas with reduced competition
from other plants. Temporary flooding is tolerated.
Range & Habitat: Brown Fox Sedge is quite common
and it undoubtedly occurs in every county of Illinois (see
Distribution
Map). This may be the most common sedge in the state. Habitats include
openings in floodplain woodlands, swamps, soggy river-bottom prairies and sedge
meadows, gravelly seeps, streambanks, and ditches. This sedge is often found in
disturbed wetlands that are seasonally flooded during the spring. Sometimes it
is the dominant sedge in sedge meadows.
Faunal
Associations: Like other wetland sedges, Brown Fox Sedge is a food
plant of several skipper caterpillars and the caterpillars of the butterfly
Satyrodes eurydice (Eyed Brown). Other insects that feed on this sedge
include several leaf beetles (primarily Plateumaris spp.), sedge grasshoppers
(Stethophyma spp.), a variety of aphids, several leafhoppers (primarily
Cosmotettix spp.), and miscellaneous moths. Some wetland birds feed on the
seeds or seedheads of Carex spp. (Sedges); these include Mallards and
other ducks, Sora and Yellow Rails, Swamps Sparrows, and others. The Canada
Goose eats the foliage of sedges. When Brown Fox Sedge forms large colonies, it
provides good cover for many species of wetland animals, including nesting
habitat for the Sedge Wren.
Photographic
Location: A sedge meadow at Judge Webber Park in Urbana,
Illinois.
Comments: At maturity,
Brown Fox Sedge forms a large and attractive tuft of narrow leaves. It is
somewhat similar in appearance to some others sedges, including Carex
brachyglossa (Yellow Fox Sedge), Carex sparganioides (Bur-Reed
Sedge), and Carex decomposita (Cypress Knee Sedge). Yellow Fox Sedge
produces a less bristly inflorescence that becomes golden-yellow at maturity;
unlike Brown Fox Sedge, its leaves do not overtop the culms. Bur-Reed Sedge has
wider leaves and there are more gaps between its spikelets along the
inflorescence. Cypress Knee Sedge also has wider leaves and the perigynia of
its spikelets are obovoid-flattened in shape, rather than ovoid-flattened.
Other similar sedges have shorter inflorescences that are less bristly in
appearance, or their 3-angled culms are conspicuously winged, or their leaf
blades are wider than those of Brown Fox Sedge.