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Graceful Sedge
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Graceful Sedge
P Native Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Graceful Sedge, Slender Himalayan Sedge
Botanical name: Carex gracilenta    Family: Cyperaceae (Sedge family)
Synonyms: Carex duthiei, Carex infuscata var. gracilenta, Carex alpina var. gracilenta

Graceful Sedge is a slender grass-like herb with stems 15-25 cm tall, loosely clustered, scabrous below inflorescence. Leaves are equaling to shortly overtopping stem, blades 3-5 mm wide, gradually tapering to pointed tip; basal sheaths brownish and red-purple tinged, scarcely disintegrating into fibers. Flower-spikes are 3 or 4, approximate, oblong-elliptic, 10-15 x 4-5 mm; end spike gynaecandrous with short basal male part no more than 3 mm. Lateral spikes are female or with several male flowers at base. Female glumes are dark purple-brown, ovate to ovate-oblong, about 2 x 1-1.5 mm, midrib stramineous, nearly as long as utricle, tip pointed. Nutlets are rather tightly enveloped, obovate, trigonous, about 1.25 mm; stigmas 3. Graceful Sedge is found in subalpine meadows or forest margins, at altitudes of 2700-3600 m, in East Himalaya and China South-Central. Flowering: June.

Identification credit: Manas Bhaumik Photographed in Tawang region, Arunachal Pradesh.

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