Pill Sedge
Scientific name: Carex pilulifera L.
Family: Cyperaceae
MORPHOLOGY
Habit and size: Perennial herbaceous plant, 10-30 cm tall, with short rhizomes, densely bushy.
Stems: Slender, trigonous stem, smooth or rough upwards.
Leaves: Flat or slightly channelled leaves, not very rigid, rough at the margins, 1-1.5-3.5 (3.8) mm wide, shorter than the stem. Basal sheaths slightly torn or fibrous, reddish-brown.
Flowers: Compact, brownish inflorescence, 1-4 cm long, with 1 terminal male spike and 2-4 (5) female spikes. Terminal male spike linear, 0.8-1.5 (1.8) cm long, 1-2 (2.5) mm wide; glume 3.5-4 mm long, obovate or oblong, without scarious margin, acute or obtuse apex, brown, purple-brown, or dark reddish-brown. Female spikes sessile, erect, ovoid, densely flowered, rarely 1 spike with male flowers at the apex and/or branched at the base, 0.3-0.8 cm long, generally clustered below the male spike, sometimes slightly spaced at the lower ones; glume 3-3.5 mm long, broadly oval, reddish-brown, with central vein from green to yellow, without scarious margin, equal or slightly shorter than the utricle, with acute or shortly awned apex. Blooms between April and July.
Fruits and seeds: The fruits are ellipsoid or subglobose pseudanthia (utricle), (1.8) 2-3 (3.5) mm long, suberous, trigonous-swollen, with imperceptible veins, greenish-brown, densely pubescent with fine hairs, beak 0.3-0.7 mm long with bifid or truncate apex. Achenes (1) 1.2-1.5 mm long, obovate, trigonous-swollen, dark brown.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
Present from Tuscany upwards. It grows in lean meadows, sedge meadows, heathlands, broad-leaved forests, between 0 and 2,000 m.
Photo: under free license from Saxifraga and Ed Stikvoort, Rutger Barendse, Peter Meininger
