Index of Species Information
SPECIES: Carex garberi
Introductory
SPECIES: Carex garberi
AUTHORSHIP AND CITATION:
Walsh, Roberta A. 1994. Carex garberi. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online].
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station,
Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer). Available:
https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/graminoid/cargar/all.html [].
ABBREVIATION:
CARGAR
SYNONYMS:
Carex garberi subsp. garberi
Carex garberi subsp. bifaria (Fern.) Hulten [1,7]
NRCS PLANT CODE:
CAGA3
COMMON NAMES:
elk sedge
Garber sedge
TAXONOMY:
The scientific name of elk sedge is Carex garberi Fern. (Cyperaceae) [7,8,15].
LIFE FORM:
Graminoid
FEDERAL LEGAL STATUS:
No special status
OTHER STATUS:
NO-ENTRY
DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Carex garberi
GENERAL DISTRIBUTION:
Elk sedge occurs from Quebec south to New York and west to Indiana.
From Quebec it extends west to British Columbia and north to Alaska. In
the western cordillera elk sedge extends from British Columbia east
to Alberta and south to California, Nevada, and Idaho [1,4,6].
ECOSYSTEMS:
FRES11 Spruce - fir
FRES15 Oak - hickory
FRES17 Elm - ash - cottonwood
FRES18 Maple - beech - birch
FRES19 Aspen - birch
FRES24 Hemlock - Sitka spruce
FRES28 Western hardwoods
FRES44 Alpine
STATES:
AK CA ID IN ME MI NV NY ND OH
OR PA UT WA AB BC MB NB ON PQ
SK YT
BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS:
1 Northern Pacific Border
2 Cascade Mountains
3 Southern Pacific Border
4 Sierra Mountains
6 Upper Basin and Range
8 Northern Rocky Mountains
16 Upper Missouri Basin and Broken Lands
KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:
K001 Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest
K002 Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest
K003 Silver fir - Douglas-fir forest
K004 Fir - hemlock forest
K025 Alder - ash forest
K052 Alpine meadows and barren
K093 Great Lakes spruce - fir forest
K098 Northern floodplain forest
K100 Oak - hickory forest
K106 Northern hardwoods
SAF COVER TYPES:
13 Black spruce - tamarack
16 Aspen
18 Paper birch
19 Gray birch - red maple
24 Hemlock - yellow birch
46 Eastern redcedar
52 White oak - black oak - northern red oak
58 Yellow-poplar - eastern hemlock
59 Yellow-poplar - white oak - northern red oak
62 Silver maple - American elm
95 Black willow
217 Aspen
221 Red alder
223 Sitka spruce
224 Western hemlock
225 Western hemlock - Sitka spruce
226 Coastal true fir - hemlock
252 Paper birch
HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES:
NO-ENTRY
MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS
SPECIES: Carex garberi
IMPORTANCE TO LIVESTOCK AND WILDLIFE:
No information was available on this topic.
PALATABILITY:
No information was available on this topic.
NUTRITIONAL VALUE:
No information was available on this topic.
COVER VALUE:
No information was available on this topic.
VALUE FOR REHABILITATION OF DISTURBED SITES:
No information was available on this topic.
OTHER USES AND VALUES:
No information was available on this topic.
OTHER MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:
No information was available on this topic.
BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Carex garberi
GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS:
Elk sedge is a native, perennial, monoecious graminoid. It is
loosely caespitose. Culms are 19.7 to 27.6 inches (0.5-0.7 m) tall [1],
firm, and triangular [6]. Leaves are shorter to much taller than the
culms [4], and 0.8 to 0.16 inches (2-4 mm) wide. The terminal
inflorescence is 0.24 to 0.79 inches (6 to 20 mm) long [1]. The achene
is 0.06 inches (1.5 mm) long. The perigynia surrounding the achene is
lenticular and 0.8 to 0.12 inches (2-3 mm) long [1]. Elk sedge is
stoloniferous or rhizomatous, the rhizome being elongated [1,6].
RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM:
Hemicryptophyte
Geophyte
REGENERATION PROCESSES:
Elk sedge sprouts from perennating buds at the base of the culms [6]
and it reproduces vegetatively by rhizomes [1]. It also reproduces by
seed [6].
SITE CHARACTERISTICS:
Elk sedge is found in swamps, on the margins of ponds [6], and in wet
places [7]. It is found on calcareous sands, gravels, and ledges,
especially near the Great Lakes [4,10,15]. In Michigan it occurs on wet
sandy, gravelly, or marly shores, interdunal flats, rock crevices, and
at the edges of northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis) thickets [15].
In Maine it occurs on riverbanks [12].
SUCCESSIONAL STATUS:
No information was available on this topic.
SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT:
Elk sedge blooms from June to August, depending on location [4,10,12].
FIRE ECOLOGY
SPECIES: Carex garberi
FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS:
Although culms are probably killed by fire during the growing season,
elk sedge probably sprouts from rhizomes [6] after the aerial
portions are burned.
FIRE REGIMES:
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this
species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under
"Find Fire Regimes".
POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY:
Rhizomatous herb, rhizome in soil
Tussock graminoid
FIRE EFFECTS
SPECIES: Carex garberi
IMMEDIATE FIRE EFFECT ON PLANT:
Elk sedge culms are probably killed by fire during the growing
season.
PLANT RESPONSE TO FIRE:
No information was available on this topic.
FIRE MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS:
No information was available on this topic.
REFERENCES
SPECIES: Carex garberi
REFERENCES:
1. Anderson, J. P. 1959. Flora of Alaska and adjacent parts of Canada.
Ames, IA: Iowa State University Press. 543 p. [9928]
2. Bernard, Stephen R.; Brown, Kenneth F. 1977. Distribution of mammals,
reptiles, and amphibians by BLM physiographic regions and A.W. Kuchler's
associations for the eleven western states. Tech. Note 301. Denver, CO:
U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management. 169 p.
[434]
3. Eyre, F. H., ed. 1980. Forest cover types of the United States and
Canada. Washington, DC: Society of American Foresters. 148 p. [905]
4. Fernald, Merritt Lyndon. 1950. Gray's manual of botany. [Corrections
supplied by R. C. Rollins]. Portland, OR: Dioscorides Press. 1632 p.
(Dudley, Theodore R., gen. ed.; Biosystematics, Floristic & Phylogeny
Series; vol. 2). [14935]
5. Garrison, George A.; Bjugstad, Ardell J.; Duncan, Don A.; [and others].
1977. Vegetation and environmental features of forest and range
ecosystems. Agric. Handb. 475. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service. 68 p. [998]
6. Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains.
Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. 1392 p. [1603]
7. Hulten, Eric. 1968. Flora of Alaska and neighboring territories.
Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1008 p. [13403]
8. Kartesz, John T.; Kartesz, Rosemarie. 1980. A synonymized checklist of
the vascular flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland. Volume
II: The biota of North America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North
Carolina Press; in confederation with Anne H. Lindsey and C. Richie
Bell, North Carolina Botanical Garden. 500 p. [6954]
9. Kuchler, A. W. 1964. Manual to accompany the map of potential vegetation
of the conterminous United States. Special Publication No. 36. New York:
American Geographical Society. 77 p. [1384]
10. Mohlenbrock, Robert H. 1986. (Revised edition). Guide to the vascular
flora of Illinois. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
507 p. [17383]
11. Raunkiaer, C. 1934. The life forms of plants and statistical plant
geography. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 632 p. [2843]
12. Seymour, Frank Conkling. 1982. The flora of New England. 2d ed.
Phytologia Memoirs 5. Plainfield, NJ: Harold N. Moldenke and Alma L.
Moldenke. 611 p. [7604]
13. Stickney, Peter F. 1989. Seral origin of species originating in northern
Rocky Mountain forests. Unpublished draft on file at: U.S. Department of
Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station, Fire
Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, MT; RWU 4403 files. 7 p. [20090]
14. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Soil Conservation Service. 1982.
National list of scientific plant names. Vol. 1. List of plant names.
SCS-TP-159. Washington, DC. 416 p. [11573]
15. Voss, Edward G. 1972. Michigan flora. Part I. Gymnosperms and monocots.
Bloomfield Hills, MI: Cranbrook Institute of Science; Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Herbarium. 488 p. [11471]
FEIS Home Page
https://www.fs.usda.gov/database/feis/plants/graminoid/cargar/all.html
