Pennsylvania sedge

not listed

N5 - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

Pennsylvania sedge is a short, tuft-forming sedge. It rises on a single shoot or a loose or dense clump of tufts from a horizontal, long-creeping stem (stolon). The stolon is slender, scaly, reddish, and up to 10″ long. It is aboveground but often buried under leaf litter and other debris.

Both fertile and sterile stems (culms) are produced. The culms are triangular in cross section, reddish-purple at the base, hairless, and 4″ to 16″ tall. They are sheathed at the base with remnants of old leaves. Sterile culms are usually shorter than the leaves, fertile culms usually longer. Flowering spikes at the top of fertile culms are never hidden among the leaf bases.

There are two to several leaf blades per culm. Leaf blades are green, ascending to arched outward, 2″ to 16″ long, and 1 ⁄32″ to ⅛″ wide. They are V-shaped in cross section, at least when young. The upper and lower surfaces are hairless and rough to the touch. The margins are mostly flat. The lower part of the leaf that surrounds the stem (sheath) becomes fibrous with age. The membrane where the leaf meets the stem (ligule) is short and broadly V-shaped.

The inflorescence at the end of each fertile culm is a male (staminate) spike terminating the stem above 1 to 3 lateral female (pistillate) spikes. Each spike is closely subtended by a single short modified leaf (bract).

The staminate spike is short stalked or stalkless and 3 ⁄16″to 1″ long. It is densely covered with overlapping scales. The scales are ⅛″ to 3 ⁄16″long and egg-shaped to elliptic. They are green but usually strongly tinged with reddish-brown. The margins are white. Three stamens with yellow anthers emerge from the top of each scale.

The pistillate spikes are stalkless and ⅛″ to ⅜″ long. They are usually very close to but not overlapping the staminate spike. Each pistillate spike is densely covered with 4 to 13 scales. The pistillate scales are 1 ⁄16″ to ⅛″ long, egg-shaped, and dark reddish-brown. They have a green midrib and narrow white margins. They are often blackened with fungus. Each scale covers a scale-like bract (perigynium) that encloses the female flower. The perigynium is about ⅛″ long, narrowly egg-shaped, and olive green to yellowish-green, often with a purplish tip. Three white stigmas emerge from a small opening at the tip of each perigynium.

The fruit is a dry, reddish-brown, one-seeded capsule (achene). It matures in April or May and drops from the plant soon after.

4″ to 16″

Dry to moderate moisture. Wide range of prairies and woods. Sandy soil. Partial sunlight.

Pennsylvania sedge and other Acrocystis sedges are the first sedges to flower each year.

Early May to late June

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 24, 28, 29, 30, 84.

Native

Common and widespread

Plant

Inflorescence

Location: Cass County

Small clumps of these sedges are blooming everywhere now. Most of the year they are mistaken for grass, but are a much prettier brighter green.

Location: Kellogg Weaver Dunes SNA, South Unit