SCIENTIFIC NAME: Carex cristatella
COMMON NAME: Crested Oval Sedge, Crested Sedge
BLOOM TIME: June, July, Aug
PLANT PROFILE:
- 1 ½-2 ½ ft. tall sedge.
- Leaf blades up to 14 in. long and 1/3 in. across.
- Has small spikelets, prickly in appearance, about 1/3” in. across.
- Light green in color turning to brown in fall.
- Habitat: prefers full sun & tolerates most soils, swamps & wet prairies.
INSECT/ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
- Caterpillars of various butterflies, skippers, & moths feed on wetland sedges.
- Other insects feed on sedges as food source include sedge grasshoppers, semi-aquatic leaf beetles, billbugs, larvae of miscellaneous flies, seed bugs, plant bugs, aphids, & leafhoppers.
- Seeds and seed heads of wetland sedges are an important source of food for wetland birds, including ducks, rails, and grain eating songbirds.
- Most mammalian herbivores feed on the foliage sparingly.
- Meadow voles feed on both the foliage and rootstocks.