Simple Bog Sedge

Kobresia simpliciuscula (Wahl.) Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 50: 349. 1923.
Carex simpliciuscula Wahl. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Nya Handl. 24: 141. 1S03. (Type from Westmoreland, England.) Schoenus monoicus Smith, Engl. Bot. pi. 1410. 1805. (Type from County of Durham, England.) Kobresia caricina Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 206. 1805. ("Habitat in Monte Cenisio.") Carex lacustris Balbis; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 206. as synonym. 1805. Carex hvhrida Schkuhr; Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 206, as synonym. 1805.
Carex mirabilis Host, Gram. Austr. 4: 44. pi. 78. 1809. ("In alpibus tyrolensibus, carinthiacis.") Elyna Bellardi Hartm. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1814: 107. 1814. (As to plant described only; not
as to Carex Bellardi All.) Elvna caricina Mert. & Koch, in Roehling, Deuts. Fl. ed. 3. 1: 458. 1823. (Based on Kobresia
caricina Willd.) Carex lobata Willd.; Kunth, Enum. PI. 2: 533, as synonym. 1837. Kobresia bipartita Dalla Torre, Anl. Beob. Alpenpfl. 216. 1882. (As to plant described; not as to
Carex bipartita All.)
Very densely cespitose, in large to small clumps, the rootstocks very short, not at all creeping, tough, thick, lignescent, the culms 0.5-3.5 dm. high, slender but strict, stiff, wiry, obtusely triangular, smooth, from about equaling to strongly exceeding the leaves, phyllopodic, the persistent dried-up leaves of the previous year bearing conspicuous dried blades, strongly cinnamon-brown-tinged at base; leaves with well-developed blades many to a culm, densely clustered on lower fifth or sixth, the blades acicular, dull-green, 0.2-2 dm. long, 0.25-0.5 mm. wide, erect to strongly curved, long-attentuate, roughened towards apex, the tips usually dried-up, tapering or contracted into the strongly striate, chartaceous, very conspicuous, smooth, shining, deep-cinnamon-brown sheaths, sparingly filbrillose in age, hyaline and reddish-brown-tinged and concave at mouth ventrally, the lignle much wider than long; head compound, 1-3.5 cm. long, 3-8 mm. thick, the spikes typically approximate and appressed or the lower rarely somewhat remote and rarely more or less spreading-ascending, the bracts oblong-ovate or ovate, chestnut-brown with white-hyaline upper margin, several-nerved, obtuse to cuspidate, chartaceous, closely appressed, shorter than the spikes; spikes 3-10, linear-oblong, 3-8 mm. long, 1.5-2.5 mm. wide, sessile or nearly so, the terminal spikelets staminate, the lateral androgynous or pistillate and one-flowered; scales small, ovate, obtuse or slightly cuspidate, chestnut-brown, with upper margins white-hyaline, thin, chartaceous, appressed, keeled, the keel slightly rough; perigj'nia narrowly oblong-elliptic, 2.5-2.75 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, substipitate, chestnut-brown, smooth, shining, very thin and chartaceous, closely enveloping achene, the margins free to base or very nearly so; achenes slightly exceeding perigynia, narrowly linear-oblong, 3 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, at first pale, at length brownish, triangular with sides somewhat concave below, broadly short-stipitate, somewhat abruptly short-apiculate, jointed with the style; stigmas three, long, slender, dark-brown; rachilla sometimes present, short, very slender.
Type locality (of Carex simpliciuscula, on which Kobresia simpliciuscula is based): "Hab. in Westmorlandia Angliae, unde misit CI. Turner ad Swartz."
Distribution : Sunny flats and slopes (usually more or less strongly moist) , in strongly calcareous districts, Greenland to Alaska, and southward to western Newfoundland and Quebec and in the western mountains to Colorado; also in Europe and Asia. (Specimens examined from Greenland, Ellesmereland. Labrador. Newfoundland. Anticosti. Quebec. Alberta. Colorado. Alaska.)

Kobresia simpliciuscula is a species of sedge known by the common names false sedge, simple bog sedge and simple kobresia. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring throughout the northern latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

This perennial plant forms tufts of several triangular stems reaching up to 50 centimeters in height. It has short rhizomes. The leaves are up to 20 centimeters long. The inflorescence contains up to 12 spikes of flowers. Light is required for the seeds to germinate.

This plant occurs on tundra and in alpine climates. It grows in wet habitat types such as ponds and meadows. It often grows in calcareous substrates such as limestone.