Summary ⁷

Carex amplifolia is a species of sedge known by the common name bigleaf sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to Montana to California, where it grows in wet and seasonally wet areas in coniferous forests.

Description ⁸

Culms tinged reddish at base, 50–100(–130) cm. Leaves: sheaths ± hispidulous abaxially; ligules 3–30(–65) mm; blades light or glaucous green, (10–)20–60(–80) cm × 8–20(–23) mm, those of sterile shoots to 20 mm wide, glabrous adaxially except on veins toward apex. Spikes 5–8, narrowly oblong to slenderly cylindric; proximal spikes separate, pedunculate, others approximate, short-pedunculate or subsessile; staminate spikes 5–9.5 cm; pistillate spikes mostly ca. 40–470-flowered (405–705-flowered if branched), (1.5–)3.5–14 cm × (2.5–)3.5–6.5 mm. Pistillate scales from longer to shorter than perigynia, the proximal short-awned, others acute (or all mucronate to awned), entire. Perigynia brownish green, 2-ribbed, otherwise veinless or inconspicuously 1–7-veined, obovoid, subinflated, collapsing and becoming obtusely triangular, 2.4–3.1 mm, glabrous; beak 0.7–1.1 mm, erose (scarcely bidentulate). Achenes broadly obovoid, 1.5–1.7 × 1–1.3 mm.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) "<a href=""http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/boise/teams/shrub/shaw.htm"">USDA FS RMRS Boise Aquatic Sciences Lab</a>.", some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://plants.usda.gov/gallery/large/caam10_002_lvp.jpg
2. anonymous, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), https://eol.org/media/8806356
3. 2013 Amelia Ryan/NPS, no known copyright restrictions (public domain), http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?seq_num=434311&one=T
4. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://eol.org/media/8806357
5. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://eol.org/media/8806358
6. (c) anonymous, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://eol.org/media/8806359
7. (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carex_amplifolia
8. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/14035325

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Calflora
• CalPhotos
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Jepson eFlora
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• OregonFlora.org
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• VASCAN by Canadensys
• World Flora Online

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