Carex arctata (Drooping wood sedge)

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Carex arctata Boott ex Hook.

Drooping wood sedge, drooping woodland sedge

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Liliopsida	Monocots (plants with a single seed leaf); includes the lily family
Subclass	Commelinidae	Dayflowers and spiderworts, and several others
Order	Cyperales	Flowering plants including grasses
Family	Cyperaceae	Sedge family
Genus	Carex	The “true” sedges
Species	arctata

About plant names...

This species is native to, and common in, New England and eastern Canada. They prefer rich, damp forested areas.

Plants: Occurring in dense tufts, plants are up to 3' (1 m) high.

Leaves: Basal or nearly so. Grasslike leaves are ⅛-⅜" (3-10 mm) wide. At the base, they are encased in a sheath that is pink to reddish purple. As if often the case with sedges, younger leaves have an ‘M’ or ‘W’-shaped cross-section.

Flowers: Male (staminate) and female (pistillate) spikes are separate. The topmost spike is unisexual, staminate, ⅞-3 ⨉ ¹/₁₆-⅛" (2.5-8 cm ⨉ 3-4 mm). 2-5 pistillate (also called carpellate) spikes appear lower on the stem. Each spike is up to 3" (8 cm) long, and slender. Young spikes point upward, but they droop with age.

Fruits: Achenes are ~¹/₁₆" long ⨉ ¹/₃₂-¹/₁₆" wide (1.7-2.6 ⨉ 0.8-1.7 mm).

Online References:

Minnesotawildflowers.info

Gobotany.nativeplanttrust.org

Wisflora.herbarium.wisc.edu

EFloras

References:

Arsenault, Matt; Mittelhauser, Glen H.; Cameron, Don; Dibble, Alison C.; Haines, Arthur; Rooney, Sally C.; and Weber, Jill E., Sedges of Maine: A Field Guide to Cyperaceae, University of Maine Press, 2013, p. 284

Some similar species:

6/13/2021 · Cathance River Nature Preserve, Topsham, Maine
≈ 6 × 4" (15 × 10 cm)

5/18/2016 · Worcester Road, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire

5/16/2014 · Acton Arboretum, Action, Massachusetts
≈ 3½ × 4½" (9.2 × 11 cm) ID is uncertain

	You are here Carex arctata	*Carex crinita*	*Carex gynandra*
Common Name	drooping wood sedge	drooping sedge	nodding sedge
Plant	Occurring in dense tufts, plants are up to 3' (1 m) high.	Up to 4½' (1.4 m) tall.	Up to 4½' (1.4 m) tall.
Flowers	Male (staminate) and female (pistillate) spikes are separate. The topmost spike is unisexual, staminate, ⅞-3 ⨉ ¹/₁₆-⅛" (2.5-8 cm ⨉ 3-4 mm). 2-5 pistillate (also called carpellate) spikes appear lower on the stem. Each spike is up to 3" (8 cm) long, and slender. Young spikes point upward, but they droop with age.	Drooping narrow cylindrical heads up to 4½" (11 cm) long and ¼" (7 mm) in diameter. Carpellate scales are pale, truncate to notched at apex, with rough-textured awns. 1-3 staminate spikes per stem.	2-5 carpellate narrow, cylindrical spikes per stem. Each spike is ⅞-4" (2.4-10 cm) long, ⅛-¼" (3-9 mm) in diameter. Scales on the carpels are pale- to copper brown. There are 1-3 staminate spikes per stem.
Leaves	Basal or nearly so. Grasslike leaves are ⅛-⅜" (3-10 mm) wide. At the base, they are encased in a sheath that is *pink to reddish purple*. Younger leaves have an ‘M’ or ‘W’-shaped cross-section.	M or U-shaped in cross-section, ⅛-⅜" (4-10 mm) wide.	⅛-⅜" (4-10 mm) wide, U-shaped.
Stem		Triangular stem cross-section. *Basal leaf sheaths are smooth.*	Rough-textured, with a triangular cross-section. *Basal leaf sheaths are rough.*
Fruit	Achenes are ~¹/₁₆" long ⨉ ¹/₃₂-¹/₁₆" wide (1.7-2.6 ⨉ 0.8-1.7 mm).	Perigynia are spreading, slightly inflated obovoid *(widest above the middle and truncate)*, ¹/₁₆-⅛" (2-4 mm) long.	Perigynia are *oval-shaped, tapering to a small beak.*
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Rich, damp forested areas.	Bottomland prairies, moist upland prairies, margins of bodies of water, spring branches, fens.	Marshes, wet forests, swamps, seeps, and roadside ditches. Perhaps a little more weedy and abundant in acidic soils than C. crinita.
Type	Wild	Wild	Wild

	*Carex gracillima*
Common Name	graceful sedge
Plant	8-36" (20-91 cm) high.
Flowers	A stalk emerging above the leaves, 8-35" (20-90 cm) long, contains both carpellate (seed-bearing) and staminate (pollen-bearing) flowers, with the carpellate ones uppermost. Each stalk has 2-5 spikes, each on a stem up to 1½" (4 cm) long. Each spike is 0.0 mils (0 µm) × 0.0 mils (0 µm) in size.
Leaves	Basal, ⅛-⅜" (3-10 mm) wide, and alternate. Leaves may be smooth or rough in texture. A sheath at the base of the plant is often red or purple in color.
Fruit	Carpellate spikes form seed clusters called achenes. Each such cluster is wrapped in a perigynium. They appear from late spring to mid-summer.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Common in damp forests and meadows
Type	Wild

5/18/2016 · Worcester Road, Beaver Brook Conservation Area, Hollis, New Hampshire

5/16/2014 · Acton Arboretum, Action, Massachusetts
≈ 4½ × 7" (11 × 17 cm) ID is uncertain

5/30/2014 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, Massachusetts
≈ 8 × 6" (21 × 15 cm) ID is uncertain

Carex arctata description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 8 Sep 2023.

5/30/2014 · Tom and Susan’s, Pepperell, Massachusetts
≈ 5 × 6" (12 × 15 cm) ID is uncertain

5/16/2014 · Acton Arboretum, Action, Massachusetts
≈ 5 × 6" (13 × 14 cm) ID is uncertain

6/13/2021 · Cathance River Nature Preserve, Topsham, Maine
≈ 6 × 4½" (14 × 11 cm)

Range:

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