Crawe's Sedge

Though widespread, Carex crawei is usually rare or local except near the shores of the Great Lakes, glades in the Interior Highlands, and prairie swales on parts of the Great Plains. Other authors have reported it from Nova Scotia (H. J. Scoggan 1978–1979, part 2; earlier mentioned by M. L. Fernald 1948 on the authority of J. M. Macoun 1899); no specimens to substantiate the reports have been found.

The perigynia in Carex crawei are usually smaller than in C. microdonta. A few specimens from Ontario and New York with all other characteristics of C. crawei have larger and slightly beaked perigynia that approach those of C. microdonta.

Rhizomes long-creeping. Culms solitary (rarely 2 together), 2–30(–40) cm. Leaves light green, cauline blades tending to be recurved, 0.6–9.7 cm × 1.5–4.4 mm; widest leaves 1.8–3(–4.4) mm wide. Inflorescences: peduncle of terminal spike (0.4–)0.9–7.6(–9.1) cm; bracts usually shorter than culms; ligule of proximal bract 0.1–2.2 mm; longest bract blade (per plant) of distal lateral spike 2–6.7 cm. Proximal spikes usually arising from proximal 1/2 of culms, 5–27 × 3.1–6.3 mm. Terminal spike (5–)11–24 mm, usually separated from distal lateral spike (unless staminate). Pistillate scales ovate or ovate-triangular, 1.2–2.9 × 1.1–1.6 mm. Staminate scales with apex rounded to obtuse. Anthers 1.9–2.9 mm. Perigynia yellowish green to pale brown, oblong-ovoid to ellipsoid, 2.2–3.4(–3.7) × 1.1–1.9 mm, 1.4–2.6 times as long as thick; beak 0.1–0.3 mm, orifice entire or nearly so (teeth to 0.1 mm). Achenes 1.4–1.9 × 1–1.8 mm, not including prominent apiculus 0.2–0.4 mm. 2n = 38, 59, 60.

Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., NfId. and Labr. (NfId.), Ont., Que., Sask.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., S.Dak., Tenn., Utah, Va., Wash., Wis., Wyo.

Fruiting late spring–late summer (May–mid Aug).

Dry to usually moist, open ground, often associated with calcareous gravels or limestone pavements, in wet meadows, fens, prairie swales, beach pools, shores and glades, less commonly edges of white-cedar thickets, prairie patches along rights-of-way, streams, ditches, and quarries; 0–2700m.

Carex crawei Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. II. 2 : 246. 1846
Carex heterostachya Torr. ; Dewey, in Am. Jour. Sci. II. 2: 246. 1846 (Type from Drummond
Island, Lake Huron.) Carex Crawei var. heterostachya Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. II. 42: 328. 1866. (Based on C. heterostachya
Torr.)
Culms one-few together from slender, horizontal, long-creeping rootstocks, the culms 1-3 dm. high, slender but stiff, obtusely triangular, smooth or slightly roughened above, leafy throughout, phyllopodic, exceeding the leaves, brownish-tinged at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; leaves with well-developed blades 6-12 to a culm, largely clustered near the base, sometimes more or less equitant, the blades thick, stiff, light-green, usually recurved-spreading, channeled below, 1-2.5 dm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, roughened on the margins and towards the apex, the sheaths smooth, tight, hyaline ventrally, not prolonged at mouth, the ligule longer than wide; staminate spike one (rarely with a small additional one), erect, long-peduncled, linear, 1-3 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, the peduncle rough, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse, reddish-brown with hyaline margins and 3-nerved green center; pistillate spikes 2-4, widely separate, the lowest often nearly basal, erect, little or not at all exsert-peduncled (the peduncles roughish), oblong-cylindric, 1-3 cm. long, 5-6 mm. wide, closely 10-45-flowered, the perigynia ascending in several rows; bracts leaf-like, the upper reduced, normally shorter than the culms, the sheaths smooth, but little prolonged upward at mouth, tight, 15 mm. long or less, their ligules very short; scales broadly ovate, mucronate, acuminate, or cuspidate, narrower than and about half the length of the perigynia, reddishbrown with hyaline margins and 3-nerved green center; perigynia ovoid or oblong-ovoid, suborbicular in cross-section, scarcely inflated, 3-3.5 mm. long, 1.25-2 mm. wide, asperulous, many-nerved, submembranaceous, light-green or yellowish-green, rounded and sessile at base, rather abruptly contracted into a very short, hyaline-tipped, straight, entire or minutely bidentulate beak; achenes small, obovoid, in the lower two thirds of perigynium, loosely enveloped, 1.75-2 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, triangular with sides concave below and blunt angles, yellowish-brown, tapering and substipitate at base, round-tapering and very prominently apiculate at apex, the apiculation straight or flexuous, jointed (sometimes obscurely) with the straight, short, slender style; stigmas 3, reddish-brown, slender, long.
Type locality: "Found at Watertown, and Griffins Bay, Jefferson County, N. Y." Distribution: Moist thin soil underlaid by rocks or in pockets on rocky ledges in limestone regions, Quebec to Alberta and Washington, and southward to northeastern New Jersey, southern Alabama, Tennessee, Kansas, and Wyoming. Widely distributed, but in parts of its range a very local species. (Specimens examined from Quebec, Maine, Connecticut, New York, northwestern New Jersey, Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, southern Alabama, Manitoba, Iowa, Missouri, Alberta, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, Montana, Washington.)

Carex crawei, commonly called Crawe's sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family. It is native to North America, where it is widespread in the United States and Canada. Though widespread, it has a patchy distribution and is generally rare throughout its range. It is found in wet calcareous areas, usually associated with flat limestone outcrops or gravels. It is usually found in high quality natural habitats.

It is a rhizomatous perennial that flowers in early spring.