Carex gynandra Schwein.

Nodding sedge

Similar species

	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. Stems have a triangular cross-section. Basal leaf sheaths are smooth.	Up to 4½′ (1.4 m) tall. Stems are rough-textured, with a triangular cross-section. Basal leaf sheaths are rough.
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.
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.
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.

	Carex gracillima
Common Name	graceful sedge
Plant	8–36″ (20–91 cm) high.
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.
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 ⅜–2½″ (1–7 cm) × 1/16–⅛″ (2–3.5 mm) in size.
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

Carex gynandra description by Thomas H. Kent, not updated.

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