Low Northern Sedge

Carex concinna is common in northern Canada and Alaska, particularly in the western mountains in the montane zone. It is often abundant, along with C. richardsonii, on open gravelly or sandy banks of spring flood channels. Superficially, C. concinna looks quite similar to C. deflexa Hornemann and C. rossii Boott of sect. Acrocystis. It differs from them in its strongly sheathing, short-bladed bracts, perigynium indument of coarse, wrinkled hairs, and minutely ciliate pistillate scale apices.

Plants densely cespitose, short-rhizomatous. Culms 5.5–20 cm. Leaves: basal sheaths reddish brown, blades mostly basal, pale green, shorter than culms, thin, 1–3.1 mm wide. Inflorescences: peduncles of proximal spikes short; peduncles of terminal staminate spikes 1–3.1 mm; proximal bracts short-sheathing; pistillate spikes 2–3, emerging from cauline nodes, aggregated, ascending, ovoid to ellipsoid; terminal staminate spikes 5–6.8 × 1.1–1.5 mm. Scales: pistillate scales reddish brown, ovate, apex obtuse, minutely ciliate. Anthers 1.3–1.4 mm; staminate scales dark reddish brown, ovate, margins white, apex obtuse to rounded, scarious. Perigynia ellipsoid, 2.3–3.3 × 1.1–1.4 mm, base cuneate, pubescent with coarse, wrinkled white hairs; beak straight, 0.3–0.4 mm. Stigmas 3, thin, flexuous, strongly papillose. Achenes ellipsoid, 1.7–2.1 × 1–1.3 mm. 2n = 54.

Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Mich., Mont., Oreg., Wis., Wyo.

Fruiting spring–summer (late May–late Jul).

Moist to dry meadows, riverbanks, thickets, flood plains, and open spruce, pine, cedar, birch, aspen, and willow woodlands, usually on calcareous substrates; 0–3000m.

low northern sedge

More info for the terms: achene, caespitose, culm, graminoid, monoecious

Low northern sedge is a native, perennial, monoecious graminoid [8]. It
is loosely caespitose [5]. Culms are 2 to 8 inches (5 to 20 cm) tall
[1] and triangular [8]. Leaves are mostly basal, five to nine per culm
[9], 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 cm) long, and 0.04 to 0.12 inches (1-3 mm)
wide [7]. Inflorescences are both terminal and lateral and 0.12 to 0.28
inches (3 to 7 mm) long [5]. The achene is 0.06 inches (1.5 mm) long
[8]. The perigynia surrounding the achene is obtusely triangular and
0.12 inches (3 mm) long [1]. Low northern sedge has slender, scaly,
often long rhizomes or stolons [1,9,10].

Low northern sedge occurs from Newfoundland and Quebec west to Alaska
[5,9]. From Quebec it extends south to northern Michigan and
northeastern Wisconsin [5,7]. From Alaska it extends south to Oregon
and then east to South Dakota and Colorado [1,7,8,9].

More info for the term: fire regime

Since low northern sedge can reproduce vegetatively [8], it probably
sprouts from rhizomes after aerial protions are burned. Where thick
tufts form, they may protect basal buds from fire-caused damage.

FIRE REGIMES :
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find FIRE REGIMES".

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More info for the terms: geophyte, hemicryptophyte

Hemicryptophyte
Geophyte

Low northern sedge is found in forests [10], open woods [3], and
clearings [9]. It occurs on stony, dry [8,10], often calcareous soils
[5,9,10,15].

In the Rocky Mountains and Colorado Basin, low northern sedge is found in
rich, peaty soils chiefly in calcareous areas at elevations of 5,000 to
11,000 feet (1,524-3,353 m) [9].

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This species is known to occur in association with the following cover types (as classified by the Society of American Foresters):

237 Interior ponderosa pine
244 Pacific ponderosa pine - Douglas-fir

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

FRES10 White - red - jack pine
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES19 Aspen - birch
FRES20 Douglas-fir
FRES21 Ponderosa pine
FRES23 Fir - spruce
FRES44 Alpine

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the term: forest

K012 Douglas-fir forest
K015 Western spruce - fir forest
K017 Black Hills pine forest
K018 Pine - Douglas-fir forest
K052 Alpine meadows and barren
K095 Great Lakes pine forest
K106 Northern hardwoods
K107 Northern hardwoods - fir forest

Low northern sedge culms are probably killed by fire during the growing
season.

Low northern sedge was not listed as an indicator or dominant in
available literature.

Low northern sedge in Michigan is found at the edges of northern
white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea)
thickets at the northern ends of Michigan and Huron lakes. Associated
species include bristle-leaved sedge (Carex eburnea), hairlike sedge (C.
capillaris), twinflower (Linnaea borealis), and bearberry
(Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) [15].

More info for the term: graminoid

Graminoid

AK CO ID MI MT ND OR SD WA WI
WY AB BC MB NB NF NT ON PQ SK
YT

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Low northern sedge blooms in June and July in the north-central and
northeastern United States and adjacent Canada [5].

More info for the terms: herb, rhizome, tussock

Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
Tussock graminoid

More info for the term: seed

Low northern sedge sprouts from perennating buds at the base of the
culms [8] and from rhizomes [10]. It also reproduces by seed [9].

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
9 Middle Rocky Mountains
10 Wyoming Basin
11 Southern Rocky Mountains
15 Black Hills Uplift
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands

The currently accepted scientific name of low northern sedge is Carex
concinna R. Br. [5,8,9]. It is in the family Cyperaceae. There are no
accepted infrataxa.

Carex concinna R. Br.; Richards, in Frankl. Journey 751. 1823
"Carex ornilhopoda Willd." Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 412. 1836.
Edritria concinna Raf. Good Book 26. 1840. (Based on Carex concinna R. Br.)
Loosely cespitose, in small chimps, the rootstocks slender, tough, often very elongate, brownish-black, scaly, ascending, the sterile shoots few, aphyllopodic, the fertile culms phyllopodic, central, slender, erect or incurved, 5-20 cm. high, much exceeding the leaves, triangular, slightly roughened on the angles above, dark-brownish-tinged and somewhat fibrillose at base, or the sterile shoots purplish-tinged; leaves of fertile culms with well-developed blades 5-9, clustered near the base, the upper 1 or 2 much reduced, the blades 5-10 cm. long, 2-2.5 mm. wide, thick, light-green, flat with recurved margins and somewhat involute at base, recurved-spreading, short-attenuate, smooth except at apex; leaves of sterile culms similar; sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule about as long as wide; staminate spike sessile or short-peduncled, often exceeded by the upper pistillate spike, 3-6 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, the scales few, closely appressed, broadly obovate, ciliate-laciniate, the midvein obsolete, very obtuse, reddish-brown with broad hyaline apex; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, aggregated, or the lowest somewhat remote (or rarely with long-peduncled spikes from below the middle of the culm), erect, from strongly peduncled to sessile or nearly so, short-oblong to suborbicular, 4—8 mm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, rather closely flowered, containing 5-12 ascending perigynia in several rows; bracts reduced to bladeless sheaths (the apex occasionally slightly prolonged), the sheaths 7 mm. long or less, green, except for light-reddishbrown tip; scales orbicular-ovate, obtuse, ciliate, somewhat hairy, half the length of the perigynia, dark-reddish-brown with obsolete or straw-colored midrib and white-hyaline margins; perigynia oblong-obovoid, obtusely triangular in cross-section, not inflated, 3-3.5 mm. long, 1-1.25 mm. wide, membranaceous, whitish or greenish or yellowish-white, strongly hirsute, 2-ribbed and several-nerved, the nerves obscured by the dense pubescence, stipitate, tapering at base, short-tapering at apex into a very short chestnut-brown-tinged beak, the orifice hyaline, obliquely cut; achenes oblong-obovoid, triangular with convex sides above, closely enveloped, conically short-stipitate, jointed with the straight, slender style, slightly enlarged at tip; stigmas three, very short, blackish.
Type locality: Wooded country and barren grounds, latitude 54° to 69". northwestern Canada.
Distribution: Dry soil in calcareous regions, Newfoundland to Yukon, and southward to Quebec, northern Michigan, Black Hills of South Dakota, Colorado, and British Columbia. (Specimens examined from Newfoundland. Quebec, Ontario, Michigan, Keewatin, Manitoba, South Dakota, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Wyoming, Colorado, British Columbia, Mackenzie, Yukon.)

Carex concinna is a species of sedge known by the common names low northern sedge, northern elegant sedge, beauty sedge, and beautiful sedge. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs across Canada and in high elevations in the northern contiguous United States.

This sedge produces loose or dense clumps of triangular stems up to about 20 centimeters tall. There are a few light green leaves around the bases of the stems, each measuring up to 10 centimeters long but just a few millimeters wide. The inflorescences grow at the top and from the sides of the stems. The terminal spike is made up of staminate flowers. Each is under a centimeter long. The plant reproduces by seed and by sprouting from its rhizome.

This plant grows in forests and wooded areas, often on calcareous substrates. It is common on the edges of flood channels. It occurs in the alvars around the Great Lakes along with other sedges such as spikerush (Eleocharis elliptica), ebony sedge (Carex eburnea), Richardson’s sedge (Carex richardsonii), and bulrush sedge (C. scirpoidea).