SCIENTIFIC NAME: Carex bicknellii
COMMON NAME: Prairie Oval Sedge, Copper-shouldered Oval Sedge, Bicknell's Sedge
BLOOM TIME: June, July
PLANT PROFILE:
- Grows to 1½-2½ ft. tall with flowering heads to 3 ft. tall.
- Green to light green in color.
- Spring seed head shape & color give it the common name Copper-shouldered oval sedge.
- Like all sedges has triangular shaped stems.
- More tolerant of dry soil than other sedges.
- Grows during spring & fall when soil temperatures are cool.
- Found in high quality prairie remnants.
- Habitat: sunny locations with moist to dry soil, found in prairies, hill prairies, cemetery prairies, barren rocky areas, thinly wooded slopes, & savannas.
- Named to honor, American botanist & ornithologist, Eugene P. Bicknell (1859-1925) for his keen observation of plants & animals.
INSECT/ANIMAL INTERACTIONS:
- Host plants to the Red-legged Grasshopper, Large-headed Grasshopper, & other grasshoppers.
- Southern Corn Billbug feeds on sedges.
- Some upland gamebirds & grain eating songbirds eat seeds in summer, fall, or winter including Ring-Necked Pheasant, Greater Prairie Chicken, Horned Lark, Savannah Sparrow, Henslow's Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, & Slate-Colored Junco.
- Sedges not preferred as food source but are grazed occasionally by hoofed mammalian herbivores.