Spermatophytes (seed plants): Angiosperms (flowering plants): Monocots: Commelinids: Poales
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (10/20/20):
Carex pensylvanica
FAMILY
Cyperaceae
Go to FSUS key
Dig deeper at SERNEC, a consortium of southeastern herbaria.
A familiar plant of upland forests in the mountains? or it may prove that this species, as traditionally understood, does not occur in NC. Read more at Vascular Plants of North Carolina.
INCLUDED WITHIN
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Carex pensylvanica
FAMILY
Cyperaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 030-17-044:
Carex pensylvanica var. pensylvanica FAMILY Cyperaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN & ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIANT Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Carex pennsylvanica
COMMON NAME:
Pennsylvania Sedge, High Meadow Sedge
To see larger pictures, click or hover over the thumbnails.
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USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913 pnd_cape6_001_lvd
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JK Marlow jkm230328_2148
March Pickens County SC
Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve
At stem tip, a single staminate spike 0.5-1" long; below this 1-3 pistillate spikes, per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.
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JK Marlow jkm230328_2151
March Pickens County SC
Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve
Spikes stalkless or nearly so, dark purplish brown at flowering time [here w developing fruit], per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.
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JK Marlow jkm230328_2159
March Pickens County SC
Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve
Plants form loose clumps and create colonies from spreading rhizomes, per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.
)
JK Marlow jkm230328_2162
March Pickens County SC
Glassy Mountain Heritage Preserve
Bases wrapped in a red sheath that splits and has thread-like fibers along edges (“fibrillose”), per www.minnesotawildflowers.info.
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L.L. (Chick) Gaddy llg_pennsedgemthardygap
May? Jackson County NC
Here seen in a beech gap forest at Mt Hardy Gap, Blue Ridge Pkwy, MP 426, per Alpine South: Plants and Plant Communities of the High Elevations of the Southern Appalachians (Gaddy, 2014).
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JK Marlow jkm0407t_11
July Mitchell County NC
The Roan Highlands
A low-growing grass-like sedge w orderly drooping stems & 2-4 narrow leaves, per Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont (Spira, 2011).
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JK Marlow jkm0407t_15
July Mitchell County NC
The Roan Highlands
Low-growing clumps of very fine linear foliage, spreading by stolons, per Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002).
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JK Marlow jkm0407u_18
July Mitchell County NC
The Roan Highlands
WEAKLEY'S FLORA OF THE SOUTHEASTERN US (10/20/20):
Carex pensylvanica
FAMILY
Cyperaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN
PLANTS NATIONAL DATABASE:
Carex pensylvanica
FAMILY
Cyperaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN
VASCULAR FLORA OF THE CAROLINAS (Radford, Ahles, & Bell, 1968) 030-17-044:
Carex pensylvanica var. pensylvanica
FAMILY
Cyperaceae
INCLUDED WITHIN & ORTHOGRAPHIC VARIANT
Manual of the Southeastern Flora (Small, 1933, 1938)
Carex pennsylvanica
264
Grass, Sedge, or Rush
Perennial
Monoecious
Habitat: Dry to moist woodlands and forests, grassy balds, shale barrens, rock outcrops, per Weakley's Flora
Native north of the Carolinas & Georgia
CLICK HERE to see a map, notes, and images from Weakley's Flora of the Southeastern US.
LEAVES:
Simple
Basal?
RHIZOMES? STOLONS?
Loosely cespitose [growing in dense tufts, clumping] from elongate rhizomes
FLOWER:
Spring/Summer
Perianth absent
3 stamens
Superior ovary
Unisexual
Inflorescences: spikes (terminal spike staminate; 1-3 lateral spikes pistillate)
FRUIT:
Spring/Summer
Yellowish/Purplish
Nutlet
TO LEARN MORE about this plant, look it up in a good book!
- Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee (Hunter, 2002) p210
- Wildflowers & Plant Communities of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont (Spira, 2011) p343
If a search such as "Carex leptalea var. leptalea" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "Carex leptalea".
Or, to minimize chances of a misspelling, try just "Carex le".
Less is more: If "pencil flower" doesn't deliver the results you want, try "pencil".