Carex appressa
Drawing by Ashleigh 5F
October 1998

This common sedge forms clumps a metre tall and sometimes covers fairly large areas near shady streams and swamps. Stems are acutely triangular, hard and finely scabrous on the edges towards the top. The long grass -like leaves are about 4 or 5 mm broad and also scabrous on the margins. The flowers are on little branches 5 to 20 cm long of numerous short closely appressed erect brownish spikes, the lowest spike distant, the upper ones crowded.

The floral bracts subtending the spikes are small or absent, or sometimes the lowest bract is long and thread-like. Spikes carry both male and female flowers, the male sometimes has only a few, in the upper part of the spike.