categoryZGrasses Grasses List 

BOTTLE SEDGE

Carex rostrata

Sedge Club- & Spike-Rush Family [Cyperaceae]

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category
category8Grasses
 		 status
statusZnative
 		 flower
flower8cream
 		 flower
flower8brown
 		 petals
petalsZ0
 		 type
typeZspiked
 		 stem
stem8triangular
near top		 stem
stem8round
below		 stem
stem8hollow
triangular		 sex
sexZmonoecious
 

7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The stems have a wide size range from 20 to 100cm tall and erect, but the leaves can be longer stull at up to 120cm long and between 2 and 7mm wide.

The much narrower male spikelets, which should be above the wider and tubular female spikelets, seem to be absent from this specimen.



7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The male spikelets, which are pale-brown and number between 2 and 4 per flowering stem, are at the top and between 20 to 709mm long but much narrower than the female spikelets just below them.


7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The stems are round and smooth below but rough and triangular near the top.


7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
There are between 2 to 5 female spiked inflorescences and which are often almost erect, almost stalkless, between 30 to 80cm long and cylindrical in outline.


7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The female spikelets are pale green and could the induvidual fruits be bottle-shaped? Hence tha vernacular name.


7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The stems (just right of centre) are rough and triangular near the top (but round and smooth below).

The (thick) leaves (on left) can adopt several shapes from keeled to pleated to in-rolled; here keeled. They are also supposed to be dark-green and shiny beneath and glaucous on the upperside but to your Author the back of the leaves on the left look glaucous-green, so the upper side must be even more glaucous.



7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The individual fruits are flask-shaped, a shiny yellowish-green, ovaloidal with a long narrow beak and between 3.5 to 6.5mm long overall.


7th July 2016, a wet heath, California Park, Berkshire. Photo: (CC by 2.0) Geoff Toone
The flask-shaped fruits (aka the 'bottles' of Bottle Sedge). A long-triangular bract is brown with a narrow pale stripe in the centre which falls a little short of the point of the bract.

Hybridizes with : Flower ()

  • Cyperus Sedge (Carex pseudocyperus ) to produce Carex × justi-schmidtii (an invalid name) which is now found in Fermanagh, West Lancashire as well as West Norfolk where it was first discovered.
  • Bladder Sedge (Carex vesicaria) to produce Carex × involuta which is a more common hybrid scattered over Britain and Ireland.

Not to be semantically confused with : Bottlebrush Buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) [a plant with similar name belonging to a differing family]

  Carex rostrata  ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ Cyperaceae  

Distribution
family8Sedge Club- & Spike-Rush family8Cyperaceae
 BSBI maps
genus8Carex
Carex
(Sedge)

BOTTLE SEDGE

Carex rostrata

Sedge Club- & Spike-Rush Family [Cyperaceae]