Carex pellita is a species of sedge

Carex

Carex is a genus of plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges. Other members of the Cyperaceae family are also called sedges, however those of genus Carex may be called "true" sedges, and it is the most species-rich genus in the family. The study of Carex is known as...

 known by the common name woolly sedge.

Distribution

This sedge is native to much of North America, including southern Canada and the United States, except the Southeast.

Description

Carex pellita grows in wet and dry areas in a number of habitat types, including disturbed areas such as ditches and roadsides. This sedge grows in colonies of individuals made up of clumps of stems 30 centimeters to one meter-3 feet tall from a network of spreading rhizome

Rhizome

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes...

s.

The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

 is up to 30 centimeters long, a cylindrical body of overlapping flowers. Female flowers have dark brown or purplish, hairy scales with long tips. The fruit is coated in a fuzzy to woolly perigynium.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment - Carex pellita
• USDA Plants Profile: Carex pellita
• Flora of North America
• Carex pellita - Photo gallery
• Profile: Woolly Sedge (Carex pellita) Photos, Drawings, Text. (Wild Plants of Winnipeg from Nature Manitoba)