Carex crawei Dewey

Crawe's Sedge

Habitat: Calcareous shores, gravels, meadows and glades. [Non-tidal rivershore (non-forested, seasonally wet)]

Range: Quebec to British Columbia , south to New Jersey, Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas.

Aids to Identification: Identification of species of the genus Carex is usually difficult and dependent upon rather technical characters. C. crawei is in the section Granulares and it is distinguished by the following characteristics: stiff, solitary to loosely clustered stems to 10-30 cm, growing from long rhizomes; leaves are thick, stiff, and light green; terminal spike is 1-2 cm long, on a long stalk; perigynia, 2.1-3.5 mm long with short straight beaks, are crowded into rows, with red-brown carpellate scales. The terminal staminate spike is on a long peduncle.

Ecological characteristics: Not well known. Current locations are in seepy early successional grassy areas with either natural or human disturbance.

Phenology: Fruits late June - August.

Family: Cyperaceae

Synonyms: None noted.

Known Distribution in Maine: This rare plant has been documented from a total of 3 town(s) in the following county(ies): Aroostook.

Reason(s) for rarity: Scarcity of suitable habitat; appears to be scarce throughout its U.S. range.

Conservation considerations: Unknown.

For more information, see the Native Plant Trust's Conservation Plan for Carex crawei.