European Woodland Sedge

Foodplant / saprobe
sporodochium of Arthrinium dematiaceous anamorph of Arthrinium puccinioides is saprobic on often dry, bleached, dead leaf of Carex sylvatica
Remarks: season: (1-)3-5(-12)

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / miner
larva of Cerodontha staryi mines leaf of Carex sylvatica
Other: sole host/prey

Foodplant / saprobe
immersed, opening by slit apothecium of Lophodermium caricinum is saprobic on dead leaf (mostly near base) of Carex sylvatica
Remarks: season: 5-6

Foodplant / saprobe
scattered, immersed pseudothecium of Phaeosphaeria eustoma is saprobic on dead leaf of Carex sylvatica
Remarks: season: 10-11

Foodplant / saprobe
subsessile apothecium of Rodwayella citrinula is saprobic on dead stem of Carex sylvatica
Remarks: season: 2-5

No hybrids are reported in the flora, although in Europe Carex sylvatica hybridizes with C. strigosa and C. hirta.

Plants densely cespitose. Culms pale brown to ivory at base, sometimes with a few brown fibrillose remains of previous year’s leaves, but not densely covered with fibrils; flowering stems 25–110(–200) cm, longer than leaves at maturity, 1–1.3 mm thick, glabrous. Leaves: sheaths glabrous, proximal ones ivory grading distally to light green, all bearing blades, pale hyaline on front; blades flat, (3–)5.5–8.5(–15) mm wide, glabrous on both surfaces, finely scabrous on margins. Inflorescences: peduncles of lateral spikes 5–20 mm, scabrous; peduncle of terminal spike less than 20 mm, scabrous; proximal bracts usually shorter than entire inflorescence; sheaths 20–100 mm; blades 2–3 mm wide. Lateral spikes: 3–5, 1 per node, the proximal well separated, erect to somewhat nodding, distal ones crowded near apex; proximal spikes pistillate with 15–40 spreading perigynia attached 1–1.5 mm apart, cylindric to elongate, 15–60 × 3–5 mm; distal spikes staminate or androgynous. Terminal spike staminate or androgynous with a few pistillate flowers at base, 15–40 × 2.5–3 mm. Pistillate scales white-hyaline with broad green midrib, oblong-lanceolate, shorter than mature perigynia, apex acute, cuspidate, or awned, glabrous. Perigynia green maturing to light brown, conspicuously 2-ribbed but otherwise veinless except for short inconpicuous veins at base, substipitate, tightly enveloping achene, obovoid, 4.5–6 × 1.4–1.8 mm, membranous, apex abruptly narrowed to tubular beak, glabrous; beak bidentate, slender, 2–3 mm, teeth 1 mm. Achenes sessile, 2.2–2.6 × 1.2–1.5 mm. 2n = 58 (Czechoslovakia, Germany, Great Britain, Iberian Peninsula, Poland, Sweden)

Fruiting summer. Disturbed areas in deciduous forests; introduced; Ont.; N.Y., N.C.; Europe; introduced New Zealand.

Carex sylvatica Huds. Fl. Angl. 353. 1762
Carex patula Scop. Fl. Cam. ed. 2. 2:226. 1772. (Type from Carniola.)
"Carex capillaris L." Leers, Fl. Herborn. 202. pi. 15, f. 2. 1775. (From western Germany.)
Carex Drymeia L.f . Suppl. 414. 1781. (Type from Germany.)
Carex emarcida Suter, Fl. Helv. 2 : 263. 1802. (Type from Switzerland.)
Carex psilostachya Kit. ; Willd. Sp. PI. 4 : 289. 1805. (Type from Croatia.)
Trasus sylvaticus S. F. Gray, Nat. Arr. Brit. PI. 2 : 65. 1821. (Based on Carex sylvatica Huds.)
Edritria sylvatica Raf. Good Book 26. 1840. (Based on Carex sylvatica Huds.)
Carex laxulaTmeo; Guss. Fl. Sic. Syn. 2: 573. 1844. (Type from Sicily.)
Carex sylvatica var. Tommasinii Reichenb. Ic. Fl. Germ. 8: 19. 1846. (Type from Istria.)
Carex sylvatica f. pumila Fiek; Uechtr. Jahresb. Schles. Ges. 57: 332. 1880. (Type from Germany.)
Carex sylvatica f. gracilis Celak. Sitz.-ber. Bohm. Ges. Wiss. 1887: 1888. (Type from Bohemia.)
Carex pallescens X sylvatica Mutt, Osterr. Bot. Zeits. 38: 239. 1888. (Type from central Europe.) Carex sylvatica f. latifolia Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 7: 31. 1901. (Type from Caucasus.)
Carex sylvatica var. briganlina Asch. & Graebn. Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2 J : 184. 1903. (Type from
Bregenz, Tyrolia.) Carex sylvatica f. laxula Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 607. 1909. (Based on C. laxula
Tineo.)
Cespitose, from short, tough, rather stout rootstocks, the culms 2.5-8 dm. high, erect or becoming decumbent, slender, remotely leafy on lower half, obtusely triangular, smooth, brownish-tinged and somewhat fibrillose at base, the lower sheaths loose; leaves with welldeveloped blades 3-5 to a fertile culm, flat, thin, deep-green, asperulous above, usually 1-2 dm. long, 2.5-8 mm. wide, those of the sterile shoots 2-3 dm. long, short-acuminate, the sheaths red-dotted and more or less strongly yellowish-brown-tinged ventrally especially at the deeply concave mouth, the ligule longer than wide; staminate spike strongly rough-peduncled, linear, 1.5-4 cm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, short-cuspidate to obtuse, greenishwhite and often yellowish-brown-tinged, with 3-nerved green center; pistillate spikes 3 or 4, linear, 2-5 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, the lower widely separate, nodding on very long rough capillary peduncles, the uppermost shorter-peduncled and more erect and usually approximate to the staminate spike, closely (or loosely at base) 1 5-40-flowered in several rows with ascending perigynia ; bracts strongly sheathing, leaflet-like, shorter than culms, the upper much reduced ; scales oblong-ovate, thin, awned to acute, greenish-white and yellowish-brown-tinged, with sharp 3-nerved green center, scabrous toward the tip, narrower and shorter than the perigynia; perigynia 5-6 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, the body elliptic-obovoid, triangular, not inflated, slightly asperulous or smooth, green, membranaceous, puncticulate, becoming greenish-strawcolored, or in age dark-brown, 2-keeled, otherwise nerveless, tapering at base and truncately stipitate, abruptly contracted into a slender, hyaline-tipped, bidentate beak nearly as long as the body, the orifice ciliate; achenes oblong-obovoid, 2.25 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, triangular with sides concave below and blunt angles, closely enveloped, yellowish-brown, granular, sessile or nearly so, apiculate-tipped, jointed with the straight slender style slightly enlarged at base, stigmas three, slender, long, reddish-brown.
Type locality: "Habitat in sylvis humidis," England.
Distribution: Locally established in woodlands at Roslyn and Hempstead, Long Island, New York. Widely distributed in Europe, extending into northern Africa and western Asia. (Specimens examined from Roslyn and Hempstead, Long Island).

Carex sylvatica is a species of sedge found in deciduous woodlands across Europe. It typically reaches 60 cm (24 in) tall, and has an inflorescence made up of 3–5 pendent female spikes and a single male spike. It is also used as a garden plant, and has been introduced to North America and New Zealand.