Carex vulpinoidea Michx.

Common fox sedge, fox sedge

Similar species

	You are here Carex vulpinoidea	Carex annectens	Carex stipata
Common Name	common fox sedge	yellow-fruit sedge	awl-fruited sedge
Plant	Dense tufts are 1½–3½′ (45–106 cm) tall. Culms are trigonous (three-angled) and mostly smooth.	Loose tufts have spongy, winged stems up to 2½′ (75 cm) in height.	Tufts up to 4′ (1.2 m) tall. Culms are hairless, three-angled, and stout but spongy-feeling, and winged.
Leaves	Basal or on the bottom third of the stem, alternate, 3′ tall ⨉ 1/32–⅛″ wide (91 cm ⨉ 1.5–6 mm).	Alternate leaves are longer than for C. vulpinoidea, exceeding the height of the flowering stems. They are 1/16–⅛″ (2–6 mm) wide.	2′ long ⨉ ⅛–¼″ wide (60 cm ⨉ 4–8 mm).
Flowers	Inflorescences are ten to fifteen spikes all jammed together in an overlapping tangle 2½–4″ (7–10 cm) long at the top of the culm. Pistillate (female) spikes are comprised of carpellate scales that are much shorter than the perigynia. The scales have awns up to ⅛″ (3 mm) long. The perigynia are 1/16–⅛″ long ⨉ 1/32–1/16″ (2–3.2 ⨉ 1.3–1.8 mm), and yellow green to light brown.	Inflorescences are 1½–2½ ⨉ ½″ (4–7 ⨉ 1.5 cm), with ten to fifteen spikes. They may somewhat exceed the length of those of C. vulpinoidea. Each spikelet is a cluster of both staminate (male) and pistillate (female) florets; the staminate florets are at the top, and incon­spic­uous. The perigynia are rounded and orangish yellow to golden brown, with short abrupt beaks when compared with C. stipata. Each perigynia is 1/16–⅛ ⨉ 1/32–1/16″ (2.2–3 ⨉ 1.5–2.2 mm) in size. Carpellate scales are reddish brown, with an awn up to 1/32″ (1.5 mm) long.	Inflorescences are 1¾–6″ (5–15 cm) long, densely crowded with yellowish-green spikes. Perigynia are ⅛–3/16″ (4–5 mm) in length, with long, sharp, tapering beaks.
Fruit	Achenes are ~1/32″ (1.2–1.4 mm) long.	Red-brown, circular, ~1/32 ⨉ ~1/32″ (1.2–1.5 ⨉ 1–1.2 mm), and glossy.	Achenes are ovoid, flattish, and less than 1/16″ (2 mm) long.
Range/ Zones
Habitats	Open, moist to wet habitats including wet meadows, wet ditches and along rivers, streams and lakes.	Fields, ditches, and roadsides, preferably wet, but dry if protected from sun.	Marshes, meadows, fields, river and lake shores, swamps, and human-disturbed habitats.

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

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