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Oval Sedge

Oval Sedge

Carex leporina

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How common: Common

Oval Sedge is a tuft-forming, grass-like perennial with narrow grey‑green leaves and small brown flower heads. You often see it in open, disturbed places such as meadows, roadsides, waste ground, and the edges of woods and rocky grasslands.

Did you know?

  • Like many sedges, its stems feel three‑edged to the touch.
  • Each head carries both pollen‑ and seed‑producing flowers.

About the species

Identification

Tuft-forming plant 10–60 cm tall. Stems upright, fairly stiff, with three sharp edges and rough near the top. Leaves grey‑green, 1–4 mm wide, shorter than the stems; old leaf bases turn brown and fibrous. At the stem tip sits a dense, narrow cluster 2–4 cm long with 3–8 small, oval, brown heads close together; the lowest head has only a short, narrow, leaf‑like piece at its base. The tiny seeds sit in small, flattened cases that narrow to a fairly long tip. Similar to many small sedges; note the dense oval heads and leaves shorter than the stems. Flowers in Finland in June–July.

Plant group

Grasses, sedges and rushes

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Jul

About the habitat

Open grassy places, road and field edges, waste ground, forest margins and rocky heaths; thrives in light and often disturbed sites. Common from the south up to the head of the Bothnian Bay and Kainuu; farther north more scattered, occasional in Kuusamo and Lapland.

Sources

Photo: James K. Lindsey, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carex.ovalis.2.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40303

Text: Pinkka (Luomus), CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40303

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Carex, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.40303

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%A4n%C3%B6nsara

See also