Kingdom: Plantae

Phylum: Magnoliophyta -- flowering plants

Class: Liliopsida -- monocots

Family: Cyperaceae -- sedge

Common Name: elk sedge, Geyer’s sedge

Species Code: CAGE2

Origin: Native to mesic grassland and dry forest from southern British Columbia south to California and east to Colorado and Alberta. It is one of the few sedges which regularly occur in upland habitats.

Rare: no

Form: grasslike, perennial, with 3-ranked leaves and solid triangular culms, 15-65cm tall; loosely tufted from strong, creeping, scaly rhizomes.

Duration: perennial

Longevity: medium

Habitat Type: prairie, open forest

Wetland Indicator Status: not listed

Leaves: firm, flat blades, 2-5mm wide, generally longer than the culm, remaining green through winter, basal sheaths reddish-brown to purplish tinged dark brown.

Mature height: 6-26 inches

Flowers: borne in a solitary terminal spike, 5-25 cm long, with 2-15 staminate and 1-3 pistillate flowers separated by a short peduncle.

Flower color: inconspicuous

Bloom: April

Bloom starts on: mid April

Bloom ends on: late April

Fruit: achene, obovoid, triangular in cross section, 4-nerved, 2-3mm long; perigynium hairy with a short beak, ovate, 5-6 mm long.

Characteristics:
Reproduces both sexually by seed and vegetatively by rhizomes.
91,400 seeds/lb (Hassell et al 1996).
Wind pollinated.
Plants are monoecious and androgynous (the male flowers being borne above the female flowers on the same spike).
Leaves remain green through the winter (Svejcar 1986).
Fruit is an achene.
Seeds are stored in the seed bank (Chadwick 2002).
The base of the culm was boiled and eaten by native peoples (Stubbendieck et al 1997).
Valuable forage for Rocky Mountain elk throughout the year (Kufeld 1973).
Important forage for elk and cattle, less so for sheep and deer (Roche & Roche 1991, Stubbendieck et al 1997, Chapman 2002).
Sedges are probably hosts for the larva of the common wood nymph (Cercyonis pegala) and the common ringlet (Coenonympha californica) butterflies (Pocewicz 2005).

Comments: While most Carex species are wetland plants, Carex geyeri is one of the few which prefer upland habitats.

Sun requirement: full to partial sun

Soil moisture: mesic

Precipitation: 12-20 inches (USDA NRCS PLANTS Database 2009).

Fire: Top-killed by fire. Increases and recolonizes quickly after fire from surviving rhizomes and seed bank. Hot fires reduce recolonization rate (Chapman 2002).
Most of the literature relates to fire in forests. There is little information on grassland fires.

Sowing time: fall

Transplant time: spring

Germination pretreatment: scarification plus cold moist stratification

Seed yield: low

Seed harvest: medium difficulty

Seed first harvest: no information available

Planting duration: no information available

Seed size: large

Seed harvest date: no information available

Seed comments: Seed production is generally low. The plants rely more on vegetative reproduction.

Herbaria: Specimen data and digital resources from The Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria

Key words: upland, sedge

Propagation:
Seeds of most Carex spp. require cold, moist stratification. Scarification to remove the perigynium before stratification also aids germination.

References:
Chadwick, Amy C. 2002. Carex geyeri. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available: http://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2009, July 28].

Hassell, Wendell, W. Rocky Beavers, Steve Ouellette, and Thomas Mitchell. 1996. Seeding Rate Statistics for Native and Introduced Species. US Dept of Interior and USDA, NRCS. Denver, CO.

Kufeld, Roland. 1973. Foods Eaten by the Rocky Mountain Elk. Journal of Range Management 26:106-113.

Pocewicz, Amy. 2005. Host Plants of Palouse Butterfly Species. 2 page handout to accompany the April 2005 presentation to the Palouse Prairie Foundation.

Roche, Ben F., Jr. and Cindy Talbott Roche. 1991. Eastern Washington Range Plants. Extension Bulletin 1302, Washington State University Coop. Extension Service, Pullman WA. 66 pp.

Stubbendieck, James, Stephan L. Hatch, and Charles H. Butterfield. 1997. North American Range Plants. 5th edition. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE. 501 pp.

Svejcar, Tony. 1986. Comparative Water Relations of Carex geyeri and Calamagrostis rubescens. Botanical Gazette 147:71-77.

USDA NRCS. 2009. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 28 July 2009). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Links:
Plant Profile from the USDA PLANTS Database
Species account from the Fire Effects Information System
Species description from Flora of North America
Species information from the University of Washington Herbarium