Bicknell's Sedge

Plants cespitose with fewer than 25 culms per clump; rhizomes appearing elongate only in old clumps. Culms (35–)40–110 cm; vegetative culms few, inconspicuous, with 6–8 leaves, not strikingly 3-ranked. Leaves: sheaths adaxially white-hyaline, summits concave or truncate, prolonged beyond collar to 2.5 mm, papillose at least near apex; distal ligules 1–5 mm; blades 3–4 per fertile culm, 2.5–25 cm × 2–5 mm, usually adaxially papillose. Inflorescences open, pale brown, 0.24–0.62 cm × 8–15 mm; proximal internode 5–17 mm; 2d internode 3–10 mm; proximal bracts scalelike, with bristle tips shorter than inflorescences. Spikes 3–6(–8), distant, distinct, ovoid to clavate, 7–21 × 5.5–12 mm, base rounded to long tapered, apex rounded. Pistillate scales reddish brown with green midstripe, lance-ovate to ovate, 3.1–5.4 mm, 1.9–3.2 times as long as wide, (1–)1.4–2.3 mm shorter than perigynia, narrower than perignyia, apex obtuse to acute. Anthers (2.4–)2.8–4.2 mm. Staminate scales obtuse. Perigynia 15–80 in larger spikes, ascending or ascending-spreading, green to pale whitish green with reddish brown margin, conspicuously 8–12-veined abaxially, 4–8-veined adaxially, broadly elliptic to nearly orbiculate, (4.5–)5.1–6.7(–7.1) × (2.4–)2.8–4.2 mm, 0.5–0.7 mm thick, membranaceous with brown achene visible through hyaline adaxial face, margin flat, including wing 0.8–1.2 mm wide, often erose, scalloped, or with an irregular tooth, smooth; beak pale brown at tip, flat, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture inconspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 2.4–3.7 mm. Achenes elliptic to oblong, 1.6–2.2 × 1.1–1.6 mm, 0.5 mm thick. 2n = 76, 78.

Man., Ont.; Conn., Maine, Mass., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Mich, Minn., Mo., Nebr., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Wis.

Fruiting spring.

Dry to mesic prairies, open woodlands, rock or sand barrens; 50–400m.

Carex straminea Willdenow ex Schkuhr var. crawei Boott, Ill. Carex, 121, plate 388. 1862, not C. crawei Dewey 1846

Carex bicknellii Britton; Britt. & Brown, 111. Fl. 1 : 360. /. 874. 1896.
Carex slraminea var. Crawei Boott, 111. Carex 121. pi. 3SS. 1862. (Tvpe from Michigan.) Carex slraminea var. Meadei Boott, 111. Carex 121. pi. 389. 1862. (Type from Illinois.) "Carex slraminea var. brevior Dewey" L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torre> Club 1: 22, in part. 1889.
Cespitose, the rootstocks short-prolonged, tough, black, fibrillose, the culms slender to base, but strict, 3-12 dm. high, sharply triangular, slightly roughened above, exceeding the leaves, light-brownish at base and clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless; leaves with well-developed blades 3-6 to a fertile culm, on the lower third, but not bunched, the blades ascending, short, 1-2 dm. long, 2.5-4 mm. wide, flat, yellowishgreen or light-green, roughened on the margins and towards the apex, the sheaths narrowly white-hyaline ventrally, papillate dorsally, prolonged in front beyond base of blade and continuous with ligule; sterile shoots leafy; inflorescence consisting of 3-7 gynaecandrous brownish-straw-colored spikes aggregated into an erect, strict, oblong or linear-oblong head 2-4 cm. long, 8-15 mm. thick, the spikes globose to obovoid-oblong, 10-18 mm. long, 6-12 mm. wide, round-truncate to clavate-tapering at base, rounded at apex, the basal staminate flowers varying from few and inconspicuous to taking up half of the spike, the perigynia numerous, apprcssed -ascending, the beaks conspicuous and from not widely to widely spreading; lower bracts if present very short and setaceous, the upper scale-like; scales lance-ovate, obtusish or acutish, brownish-straw-colored with hyaline margins and 3-nerved green center, somewhat shorter and much narrower than the perigynia; perigynia very flat and thin, except where distended over achene, 5.5-6.5 mm. long, 2.75-4 mm. wide, very membranaceous, nearly translucent, straw-colored or greenish above, pellucid, the body broadly oval to suborbicular, broadly thin-winged to base, serrulate to middle, strongly about 12-nerved dorsally, finely but strongly slightly fewer-nerved ventrally, round-truncate at base, abruptly contracted into a beak one third to one fourth the length of the body, flat, serrulate, obliquely cut dorsally, reddish-tipped, sharply bidentate; achenes lenticular, oblong-quadrate, 1.75 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, substipitate, apiculate; style slender, straight, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, light-reddish, slender, but rather short.
Type locality (of C. slraminea var. Crawei, on which C. Bicknellii is based): "Michigan, Crawe."
Distribution: Dry soil, valley of Penobscot River, Maine, to Saskatchewan, and southward to Delaware, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. (Specimens examined from Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Oklahoma.)

Carex bicknellii, known as Bicknell's sedge and copper-shouldered oval sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America. Carex bicknellii grows in small clumps with fewer than 25 flowering stems per clump. It is found in mesic to dry prairies, savannas, and open woodlands.