Carex gynandra (Nodding sedge)

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Carex gynandra Schwein.

Nodding 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	gynandra	Speculative: “gyn-” is Latin for woman; “andros” for man. This might refer to that male and female flowers occur on separate spikes

About plant names...

These sedges are native to North America.

Plant: Nodding sedge is up to 4½' (1.4 m) high, though specimens I have seen are a good deal shorter. Stems are triangular in cross section. They usually occur in tufts.

Flowers/seeds: Each stem supports two to five arched, narrow, cylindrical drooping carpellate seed spikes up to 4" (10 cm) in length and ⅛-¼" (3-9 mm) in diameter. Each stem also contains up to three staminate spikes.

Leaves: Leaves are U-shaped, grass-like, up to ⅜" (1 cm) wide.

Carex gynandra is easily confused with, and often found near, C. crinita. “Easily confused” is something of an understatement: distinguishing these species requires a hand lens or scanner and a penchant for obscure botanical terminology. Scholarly papers have been written to provide evidence that they really are different.

6/16/2013 · Birch Point State Park, Owl’s Head, Maine
≈ 6 × 7" (14 × 17 cm)

7/6/2017 · Mt. Watatic, access road, Ashby, Massachusetts
≈ 4 × 6" (10 × 15 cm)

	*Carex arctata*	*Carex crinita*	You are here 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

Like most Carex, stems are triangular in cross section. This one is rather squashed from cutting.

Carpellate spikes (left) are the most prominent. Staminate spikes (right) are smaller and may not persist for as long.

The carpellate spike consists of pistillate scales, (left), with awns that have notched tips; and perigynia (right). Each perigynium houses a developing achene (seed). This plant was found in the fall, but in the spring, tiny pistallate (female) flowers emerge, like sinuous filaments, from the beak of perigynium.

Representative perigynia, achenes, and scales. Carex crinita (left): pistillate scale (a), perigynium (b), achene (g); C. gynandra (right): pistillate scale (c), perigynium (d), achenes (e, g). Standley, Lisa A., “A Clarification of the Status of Carex crinita and C. gynandra,” Rhodora, Journal of the New England Botanical Club, 1983, Vol. 85, No. 841.

Online References:

Www.biodiversitylibrary.org (“A Clarification of the Status of Carex crinita and C. gynandra,” Rhodora, Journal of the New England Botanical Club, 1983, Vol. 85, No. 841)

Missouriplants.com

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The USDA Plants Database

Illinois Wildflowers

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

The University of Wisconsin's Robert W. Freckmann Herbarium

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. 376

Knobel, Edward, Field Guide to the Grasses, Sedges and Rushes of the United States, Dover Publications Inc., 1980, p. 69

7/12/2020 · Harraseeket Trail, Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, Freeport, Maine
≈ 7 × 4½" (18 × 12 cm)

8/22/2020 · Warbler’s Way, Moose Alley, Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson, Maine
≈ 4 × 3½" (10 × 8.7 cm) ID is uncertain

8/22/2020 · Warbler’s Way, Moose Alley, Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson, Maine
≈ 6 × 4" (15 × 11 cm) ID is uncertain

7/23/2017 · Pine Grove Furnace State Park, Pennsylvania
≈ 4½ × 7" (12 × 18 cm)

6/21/2017 · Pearl Hill State Park, Townsend, Massachusetts
≈ 6 × 10" (16 × 24 cm)

8/22/2020 · Warbler’s Way, Moose Alley, Hidden Valley Nature Center, Jefferson, Maine
≈ 6 × 4½" (14 × 12 cm) ID is uncertain

Carex crinita Lam. var. gynandra (Schwein.) Schwein. & Torr.

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

6/16/2013 · Birch Point State Park, Owl’s Head, Maine
≈ 6 × 9" (15 × 22 cm)

7/6/2017 · Mt. Watatic, access road, Ashby, Massachusetts
≈ 4 × 6" (10 × 15 cm)

7/6/2017 · Mt. Watatic, access road, Ashby, Massachusetts
≈ 3 × 5" (8.4 × 12 cm)

6/16/2013 · Birch Point State Park, Owl’s Head, Maine
≈ 6 × 8" (14 × 20 cm)

9/18/2016 · Edgar M. Tennis Preserve, Deer I, Maine ID is uncertain

9/29/2012 · Franconia Notch Area, New Hampshire
≈ 3 × 4½" (7.9 × 11 cm) ID is uncertain

7/23/2017 · Pine Grove Furnace State Park, Pennsylvania
≈ 5 × 6" (13 × 16 cm)

8/8/2015 · Mt. Wachusett
≈ 7 × 5" (18 × 12 cm) ID is uncertain

7/12/2020 · Harraseeket Trail, Wolfe’s Neck Woods State Park, Freeport, Maine
≈ 5 × 6" (13 × 16 cm)

8/8/2015 · Mt. Wachusett
≈ 9 × 6" (22 × 15 cm) ID is uncertain

Range:

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