Description: This native perennial plant is about 1–2½' tall and unbranched. The culm is light green, triangular in cross-section, and glabrous. There are 2-3 alternate leaves along the lower half of each fertile shoot during the blooming period. The blades of these leaves are up to 5 mm. across and 10" long, light to medium green, and glabrous. Each of the larger blades has a prominent channel/keel along its length; otherwise, the blades are flat. The leaf sheaths are light green and hairless; the upper mouth of each sheath is slightly concave.
Each culm terminates in an inflorescence
from 4-12" long. The central stalk of this inflorescence is light green,
triangular in cross-section, erect, and rough to the touch; toward its apex
there are 1-3 staminate spikelets, while toward its bottom there are 2-3
pistillate spikelets. At the base of each pistillate spikelet, there is a leafy
bract that resembles the blades of the leaves, except the upper bracts are
smaller in size. Each staminate spikelet is about ½–1¼"
long, narrow, and flattened; it becomes brown after the pollen is shed. The
staminate spikelets are only a little above or below each other. Each
pistillate spikelet is ½–1¼" long and ¼" across or a
little less; it is light green to yellowish green and cylindrical in shape.
Each pistillate spikelet is densely packed with perigynia and their scales;
this gives it a short-bristly appearance. The pistillate spikelets are usually
widely separated from each other in the inflorescence; they are more or less
erect on short stiff pedicels, or nearly sessile. Each perigynium is
2.0–3.5 mm. long and 1.0–1.5 mm. across; it is ovoid to broadly
ovoid, slightly 3-angled, and densely pubescent throughout. The apex of the
perigynium consists of a short beak, while its bottom tapers to a blunt point.
Each pistillate scale is lanceolate to ovate and about the same length as its
perigynium; it has a green or purplish green vein in middle, while its wide
margins are membranous. The blooming period occurs during the late spring to
early summer. The achenes ripen during the summer. They are ovoid and bluntly
3-angled. The root system is fibrous and rhizomatous. Vegetative colonies are
often produced from the long rhizomes; usually, individual plants are not
tufted at the base with multiple shoots.
Cultivation: Woolly Sedge prefers full or partial
sun and wet to moist conditions. It is fairly adaptable and able to tolerate
different kinds of soil (loamy, gravelly, silty, etc.).
Range & Habitat: Woolly Sedge is occasional to
locally common in central and northern Illinois; it is less common in the
southern part of the state (see
Distribution
Map). Habitats include moist to wet prairies and dolomite prairies, prairie
swales, sedge meadows, seeps and calcareous seeps, swamps and openings in
floodplain woodlands, poorly drained fields, and roadside ditches. Usually,
this species is found in sunny wetlands, where it tolerates degradation of
habitat to some extent. Occasionally, it will spread into the drier ground of
adjacent prairies.
Faunal
Associations: The caterpillars of various butterflies, skippers, and
moths feed on the foliage of Carex spp. (Sedges); see the
Lepidoptera Table for a
listing of these species. Grasshoppers that feed on sedges include
Stethophyma lineata (Striped Sedge Grasshopper), Stethophyma
celata (Otte's Sedge Grasshopper), and Stethophyma gracile (Graceful
Sedge Grasshopper). Leaf Beetles that prefer sedges as a food source include
Donacia porosicollis, Poecilocera harrisii, and several
Plateumaris spp. The seeds/seedheads are an important source of food to
many kinds of birds (see Bird
Table). The foliage of sedges is edible to mammalian herbivores, but it is
not a preferred food source, possibly because of the low protein
content.
Photographic Location: A
roadside ditch in Savoy, Illinois.
Comments: Woolly Sedge is often referred to as
Carex lanuginosa. It can be distinguished from most other Carex spp.
(Sedges) by its densely pubescent perigynia with short beaks, and its
multiple staminate and pistillate spikelets. A very similar species, Carex
lasiocarpa americana (Slender Sedge), differs by having narrow leaves up to
2 mm. across that roll inward from their margins (they're convolute), and its
perigynia are slightly more slender.