Description: This
native perennial sedge is 2½–4' tall and more or less erect.
Infertile vegetative shoots are more numerous and taller than fertile shoots.
The culms are unbranched, sharply triangular in cross-section, light green, and
glabrous. Each vegetative shoot has about 7-8 alternate leaves, which are
concentrated mostly toward the apex of the shoot. Each fertile shoot has about
2-3 alternate leaves underneath the inflorescence (excluding the leafy bracts).
On vegetative shoots, the leaf blades are up to 30" long and 1/3" (8 mm.)
across. They are medium green, keeled/channeled along the middle, glabrous, and
rough to the touch on the upper surface and margins. On fertile shoots, the
leaf blades are shorter (up to 18" long), otherwise they are the same as the
blades on vegetative shoots. Lower leaf blades are ascending, while upper leaf
blades are widely spreading or drooping. The leaf sheaths are light to medium
green, glabrous, and tight-fitting around their culms. Each sheath is concave
at the mouth. The parallel veins of both the blades and sheaths are nodulated
at intervals and they are interconnected by small cross-veins. The
inflorescence of each fertile shoot is about 1-2' long and unbranched. It has
2-6 about staminate spikelets and 2-4 pistillate spikelets. The staminate
spikelets are elevated above the pistillate spikelets and widely separated from
them. Each staminate spikelet is up to 5 cm. long, very slender, and straight;
it soon turns dark brown after releasing its pollen. Each pistillate spikelet
is about 5-7 cm. long, 1.5 cm. across, and light green while immature; it has a
spiky-cylindrical appearance because of the numerous perigynia along its
length. Underneath each pistillate spikelet, there is a leafy bract up to 18"
long that resembles the leaf blades. The lowest pistillate spikelet and
uppermost staminate spikelet have short stiff pedicels, while the remaining
spikelets are sessile or nearly so. Each perigynium is about 6-9 mm. long,
2.5–3.0 mm. across, and inflated; it is lanceoloid with a long beak and
rounded at the bottom. The outer surface of each perigynium has several
longitudinal veins and it is finely pubescent (this may require magnification
to see). The tip of the perigynium's beak has a pair of unusually long teeth
about 1.5–2.0 mm. long. The achene within each perigynium is about 2.0 mm.
long, bluntly 3-angled, and oblanceoloid in shape. The root system is fibrous
and rhizomatous. This sedge can produce sizable vegetative colonies from its
long rhizomes.
Cultivation: The preference is full or partial sun,
wet to moist conditions, and fertile soil with abundant organic matter. This
sedge can spread aggressively.
Range &
Habitat: Hairy-Fruited Sedge is occasional in the northern half of
Illinois, while in the southern half of the state it is rare or absent (see
Distribution
Map). Habitats include soggy thickets, wet prairies, fens, sedge meadows,
low-areas along streams, and calcareous seeps. This sedge prefers fertile
wetlands where there is seepage of mineral-rich ground water or floodplains
where nutrients are deposited from running water. This helps to sustain the
prodigious growth of this sedge.
Photographic
Location: A low meadow along a railroad in Champaign, Illinois. The
leaves of this sedge can be seen in the background of the upper and lower
photographs.
Faunal Associations:
Various insects feed on sedges. This includes Stethophyma lineata
(Striped Sedge Grasshopper), Stethophyma celata (Otte's Sedge
Grasshopper), and the caterpillars of several butterflies, skippers, and moths
(see the Lepidoptera
Table). Upland gamebirds, waterfowl, and granivorous songbirds eat the
seeds and spikelets of sedges (see the
Bird Table). Because
Hairy-Fruited Sedge is tall-growing and forms dense colonies, it provides good
cover for various wetland animals, including ducks, rails, snakes, frogs, small
rodents, and invertebrates. This sedge also provides habitat and material for
bird nests.
Discussion:
Hairy-Fruited Sedge is one of the larger and more attractive sedges in
Illinois. It is a member of a small group of tall wetland sedges that have
multiple staminate and pistillate spikelets per culm. Perhaps the best-known
member of this group is Carex lacustris (Lake Sedge). Hairy-Fruited
Sedge differs from other sedges in this group primarily by its pubescent
perigynia and the long teeth at the tip of its perigynial beaks. Unlike another
wetland sedge, Carex stricta (Tussock Sedge), Hairy-Fruited Sedge does
not form dense clumps of stalks and leaves above an elevated root mass.
Instead, individual shoots develop from the long rhizomes to form a more even
sod within a colony of plants. This is one of the few sedges that can compete
with Phalaris arundinacea (Reed Canary Grass) in wetland
habitats.