False Hop Sedge

Carex lupuliformis is rare and local throughout much of its range, especially northward.

Plants loosely cespitose or not, long-rhizomatous. Culms solitary or not, erect, 50–130 cm. Leaves 4–7; basal sheaths brownish; sheath of distal leaf 3–21 cm; ligules rounded to triangular, 6–28 mm; blades 30–80 cm × 6–13 mm. Inflorescences 6–40 cm; peduncles of proximal spikes 1–13 cm, basal 2 peduncles 2–17 cm apart; of terminal spikes 1–12 cm, shorter than to somewhat exceeding the distal pistillate spike; bracts leafy, sheath 1–9 cm; blades 20–70 cm × 4–11 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 2–6, the distal usually ± crowded, ascending, densely 8–90-flowered, usually cylindric, 2–8 × 1.5–3 cm; terminal staminate spikes 1–2, 2–10 cm × 2–5 mm. Pistillate scales 3–9 veined, lanceolate, 6–13 × 1.8–3.2 mm, apex acute to awned, awn rough, to 5.5 mm. Anthers 3, 3.5–7 mm. Perigynia ascending to spreading, strongly 17–25-veined, sessile, lance-ovoid, 12–18.5 × 3.8–6 mm, shiny, glabrous; beak conic, 6–9 mm. Achenes stipitate, rhombic, concave faces, angles thickened, prominently knobbed with hard, nipplelike points, 3–4.5 × (2.2–)2.4–3.4 mm; style same texture as achene.

Ont., Que.; Ark., Conn., Del., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, La., Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.C., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Fruiting late spring–summer.

Wet forests, especially in openings around forest ponds, riverine wetlands, marshes, wet thickets; 0–500m.

Carex lupuliformis Sartw; Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. II. 9: 29. 1850
Carex lupulina var. polystachia Schw. & Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1 : 337. 1825. (Type from Philipstown, New York.) Not C. polystachya Sw. 1803.
Carex lurida var. polystachya L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 63, in part. 1886. (Based on C lupulina var. polystachia Schw. & Torr.)
"Carex gigantea Rudge" Farwell, Rhodora 23: 87. 1921.
Carex gigantea f. minor Farwell, Rhodora 23: 87. 1921. (Type from Oakland County, Michigan.)
Cespitose, from short stout rootstocks, sending forth long, slender, scaly, horizontal stolons, the culms 4-12 dm. high, stout, much exceeded by the upper leaves and bracts, phyllopodic, sharply triangular, smooth or nearly so, light-brown or somewhat purplish-tinged at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; leaves with well-developed blades 3-5 to a fertile culm, strongly septate-nodulose, regularly placed, even the lower little clustered, the blades flat, thin but firm, dull-green, usually 2-6 dm. long, 5-15 mm. wide, very rough towards the apex, especially on the margins, the sheaths white-hyaline ventrally, shortprolonged at mouth, the ligule conspicuous, longer than wide ; staminate spike solitary or two, narrowly linear, shortto long-peduncled, 4-10 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, the scales linearobovate or lanceolate, strongly awned to acuminate, straw-colored with strongly severalnerved green center and hyaline margins; lowest scale usually bractlike, from much shorter than to nearly as long as the spike; pistillate spikes 3-5, occasionally staminate above, oblongcylindric, 3-8 cm. long, 2-3.5 cm. wide, erect, closely aggregated, or the lower somewhat separate, the upper nearly sessile, the lower on smooth peduncles from much shorter than to somewhat exceeding the spikes, densely flowered, the perigynia 20-75, ascending or spreading in about six rows; bracts leaf-like, several to many times exceeding inflorescence, strongly sheathing, strongly prolonged and acutely high-convex at mouth; scales lanceolate, tapering to a rough awn, straw-colored with strongly several-nerved green center and hyaline margins, much narrower than and mostly much shorter than the perigynia; perigynia ovoid, 12-20 mm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, suborbicular in cross-section, strongly inflated, smooth, subcoriaceous, dull-green, or brownish-yellow at maturity, strongly about 20-ribbed, round-truncate at base, sessile, tapering into a usually rough bidentate beak nearly half the length of the whole, the teeth 0.5-1 mm. long, slender, stiff, erect or somewhat spreading, smooth within; achenes broadly rhomboid, about as wide as long, 2.75-3.5 mm. long, 3 mm. wide, triangular with deeply concave sides and blunt angles prominently knobbed in the middle, loosely enveloped, tapering and broadly stipitate at base, and short-tapering into and continuous with the persistent, slender, abruptly bent style; stigmas 3, short, slender, blackish.
Type locality (of C. lupulina var. polystachia Schw. & Torr., on which C. lupuliformis is based) : " Philipstown, Highlands of New York."
Distribution: Swampy woodlands in calcareous districts, Vermont to Minnesota, and southward to Delaware, Louisiana and Texas. Usually a local species. (Specimens examined from Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Ohio, Ontario, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas.)

Carex lupuliformis, common name false hop sedge, is a perennial sedge of sporadic distribution found in the floodplain forests and ephemeral woodland ponds of central and eastern North America. The species typically produces four to seven leaves with sheaths of distal leaves of 3 to 21 cm whose ligules are rounded to triangular. Carex lupuliformis blooms between early June and early October, typically with "two to six proximal female spikes, distal spikes usually crowded, ascending, densely flowered, usually cylindric, much longer than broad; one to two terminal male spikes." Fruiting occurs between late July through early October. Fruit is described as "perigynia ascending to spreading, inflated, strongly veined, sessile, lance-ovoid, shiny, glabrous; beak conical; achenes stipitate, broadly diamond-shaped, scarcely if at all longer than wide, concave faces, angles thickened, prominently knobbed with hard, nipplelike points."