Carex+cristatella

Carex cristatella
 * // Crested Oval Sedge // **

Ø This plant is a native, perennial sedge and grows to be about 1 ½ to 2 ½ feet tall. Each shoot has a short stalk and the bulbs or “spikelet,” on the end can grow up to 2 inches. The whole plant is green from the stalk to the spikelet. This plant is native to Illinois and is found in most areas and other parts of the east such as Indiana and Ohio. They are common and found in wet areas such as moist woodlands, swamps, soggy thickets, wet prairies, sedge meadows, sloughs, riversides, and ditches. The quality of the habitat has a minimal effect. It prefers full sun but can also endure in light shade. Sedge Family (Cyperaceae)

Common name - Crested Oval Sedge (or just  Crested Sedge)
 * “Sedges have edges,” is often the expression used to recognize a sedge or Cyperaceae and is very true. They grow in wet areas and are found in creeks and rivers. Usually, the stems are hard and solid and have three angles. And the ends or spikelets are usually clustered together like this sedge. [[image:cavseaglemarsh/Carex-cristatella.jpg width="375" height="250"]]
 *  This plant is valuable to many insects and other bugs such as butterflies, caterpillars, and moths. The seeds of the Carex Cristatella are also an important food source tovarious gamebirds, songbirds, and waterfowl. Foxes and other small to normal sized mammalian herbivores eat the seeds. It is also noted that the Imperial Mammoth used to visit wetlands like Eagle Marsh to eat the foliage!

 The blooming period is from late Spring to early Summer and seeds spread and pollinate by the wind and its seeding rate covers .125 lbs. per acre. This sedge is quite similar in appearance to other sedges. However it can be recognized because of its unique globoid-shaped and prickly spikelet. It can be confused with the “Troublesome Sedge,” but is more rounded at the bottom and contains less spikelets.


 * [[image:carex cristatella areas.jpg width="417" height="233"]] ||

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