''Carex vesicaria'' is an essentially
Holarctic
The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...
species of
sedge
The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...
known as bladder sedge,
[ inflated sedge,][ and blister sedge.][ It has been used to insulate footwear in Norway, Sweden and among the ]Sami people
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...
, and for basketry in North America.[
]
Description
''Carex vesicaria'' is a perennial plant with short creeping rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome ( ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and Shoot (botany), shoots from its Node (botany), nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from ...
s which grow shoots resembling small tufts. It grows to heights of . Its stems are rough near the tip but smoother towards their base. The narrow, ridged and pleated leaves can grow to around in length or more, and have fine toothed edges and sharp points. The fruits are erect, glossy and bulbous.[ The flower clusters are long and cylindrical in shape and each contains up to 150 developing fruits.][
]
Taxonomy
''Carex vesicaria'' was first formally named by Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in 1753.[ Many forms and varieties have been named, but no infraspecific taxa of ''Carex vesicaria'' are accepted in ]Kew
Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...
's Plants of the World Online
Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
History
Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...
.[
]
Distribution
Bladder sedge has a circumpolar, boreo-temperate distribution.[ It is native to northern North America being recorded over most of Canada and the northern United States, as far south as ]California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. It can also be found in nearly all of northern Europe and northern Asia as far as Japan and Korea. It is widespread in Britain and Ireland although it is absent from the Orkney
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
and Shetland
Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
and very rare in the Western Isles
The Outer Hebrides ( ) or Western Isles ( , or ), sometimes known as the Long Isle or Long Island (), is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland.
It is the longest archipelago in the British Isles. The islands form part ...
.[
]
Habitat
''Carex vesicaria'' grows in damp habitats, mostly in mesotrophic soils which are slightly basic
Basic or BASIC may refer to:
Science and technology
* BASIC, a computer programming language
* Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base
* Basic access authentication, in HTTP
Entertainment
* Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film
...
, in areas where the water table
The water table is the upper surface of the phreatic zone or zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with groundwater, which may be fresh, saline, or brackish, depending on the loc ...
is at or above the soil surface. It grows along edge of many types of waterbodies, as well as damp depressions in pastures and in wet woodlands. It can also colonise wet areas Where pits have been created for extraction of aggregates such as sand, gravel, or clay.
In Britain it has an altitude range of with the highest plants being found at Llyn Gorast in Cardiganshire
Ceredigion (), historically Cardiganshire (, ), is a county in the west of Wales. It borders Gwynedd across the Dyfi estuary to the north, Powys to the east, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. Ab ...
.[
]
Uses
''Carex vesicaria'' was cultivated in North America by indigenous people as its rhizomes were used for basketry
Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...
, The dried fibres, were sometimes used as thermal insulation in footwear in polar region
The polar regions, also called the frigid zones or polar zones, of Earth are Earth's polar ice caps, the regions of the planet that surround its geographical poles (the North and South Poles), lying within the polar circles. These high latitu ...
s, are known as sennegrass, saennegrass or similar, from the plant's Bokmål
Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...
name ''sennegras''.
References
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment - ''Carex vesicaria''
''Carex vesicaria'' - Photo gallery at Calphotos
{{Taxonbar, from=Q157765
vesicaria
Flora of Asia
Flora of Europe
Flora of Northern America
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus