Carex acutiformis

Perennial of the Cyperaceae family, Carex acutiformis is widespread throughout temperate Europe and western Asia. The quintessential swamp sedge, it colonizes reed beds, sedge meadows, river and pond banks, ditches, and floodplains, always in open areas with constantly moist or waterlogged soil.

Carex acutiformis forms vast, dense, and vigorous clumps, with creeping rhizomes that allow it to quickly colonize large areas. The leaves are long, narrowly linear, bright green to glaucous green, with sharp edges, characteristic of large sedges in marshy environments. The height commonly reaches 80 to 140 cm.

The flowering stems are trigonous, upright, bearing several distinct spikes: the male spikes, narrow and elongated, are so dark brown they appear almost black at maturity; the female spikes, thicker and cylindrical, initially greenish then reddish-brown, feature golden stigmas that give the whole a very recognizable bristly texture at the time of pollination.

In its natural habitat, it blooms from May to June.

Carex acutiformis is perfectly suited for the vegetation of pond banks and wetlands; it requires constantly moist to submerged soil and exposure from sunny to semi-shade.