Participant Info

Species

Carex praegraciis [Carex alterna] [Carex camporum] [Carex latebrosa] etc.

Family

Cyperaceae

CommonName

blackcreeper sedge, clustered field sedge, field sedge, expressway sedge

Presence

yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

1911

LatestDate

2014

Ecosystem

montane, subalpine

Geobotanical

SSawatch, Garitas, SSanjuans, NCristos

Counties

Conejos, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Baca

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. Field sedge (Carex praegracilis) has been vouchered from all mountain ranges of the Watershed except for the Culebras, but not often. Its typical habitat in the Watershed is seeps and wet forest edges. So far it has not been recorded from ruderal ground, as it has elsewhere in the USA. Carex praegracilis is cultivated as a lawn replacement. It tolerates saline substrates and in northern USA states where the application road salt apparently has enabled its spread along road sides. The lower USA distribution of this dioecious sedge is all Western states and the upper Great Plains—absent only in the Southern states and Texas. Carex praegracilis follows the Rio Grande drainage through New Mexico but not into Texas.

Annotation