Annual herb, tufted 2 - 12 cm tall Leaves: basal, 1 - 3 cm long, to about 0.5 mm wide, linear, parallel-veined, with a sheathing base that encloses the stem. Inflorescence: a terminal, egg-shaped cluster of one to two spikes, 1 - 5 mm long, 1 - 2 mm wide, subtended by leaf-like bracts. Bracts one to two, longest upright, 0.5 - 2 cm long, to 0.5 mm wide. Spikes composed of numerous spikelets. Flowers: minute, subtended by a floral scale, lacking sepals and petals, with one or two scales. Stamen one, exserted. Pistil one. Style linear, two- to three-cleft. Fruit: a one-seeded achene, 0.5 - 0.75 mm long, about 0.25 mm wide, 1.5 to 2.5 times as long as wide, reverse egg-shaped, circular in cross-section. Seed with a thin, non-adherent wall. Culm: 2 - 12 cm long, to 0.5 mm wide, circular in cross-section, solid. Spikelets: bearing two floral scales. First scale light brown to reddish brown with a greenish midrib, about 1 mm long and 0.5 mm wide, more or less diamond-shaped (but widest above the middle), long-pointed. Second scale reddish brown above with two to four reddish veins, about 0.5 mm long and 0.2 mm wide, oblong.
Similar species: No information at this time.
Flowering: August to October
Habitat and ecology: Rare in the Chicago Region. Found in wet, sandy soil.
Occurence in the Chicago region: native
Etymology: Lipocarpha comes from the Greek words lipos, meaning fat, and carphos, meaning chaff, referring to the inner scale thickness of some species. Drummondii is named after Thomas Drummond, a 19th century Scottish naturalist.
Author: The Morton Arboretum
FNA 2002
Common Name: Drummond's halfchaff sedge Duration: Annual Nativity: Native Lifeform: Graminoid General: Tufted annual, not rhizomatous with solitary terete stems 2-12 cm by 0.5 mm thick. Vegetative: Leaves basal, with the lower bladeless or with an involute appendage, upper with distinct glabrous blade 1-3 cm long by 0.3-0.6 mm wide, the longest involucral leaf more or less erect. Inflorescence: Terminal spikes 1-2, ovoid to globose, 1-5 mm by 1-2 mm, not bristly with 1-2 bracts, the longest of these erect, 0.5-2 cm by 0.5 mm wide; the spikelets made of 2 floral scales, the first light brown to reddish brown, with greenish midvein, with widest axis above the middle and with no straight margins, widest above midlength; second scale reddish brown above with 2-4 reddish veins, oblong, 0.5 mm by 0.2 mm wide, third scale absent; achenes obovoid, terete, 0.5-0.75 mm by 0.25-0.35 mm, 1.5-2.5 times long as wide. Ecology: Found on emergent shorelines in sandy soils to 4,000 ft (1219 m); flowers August-September. Notes: Very similar to L. aristulata, can be distinguished by the outer scale being widest from the tip to the midlength, with the second scale reddish brown above. Advice- Take a specimen and get a scope. Prognosis- Not a good chance it is here, but you never know. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Lipocarpha comes from Greek leipo, meaning to be deficient or wanting, and karphos for chip of straw, while drummondii is named for Thomas Drummond (1790-1835) a Scottish naturalist. Synonyms: Hemicarpha drummondii, Hemicarpha micrantha var. drummondii, Scirpus micranthus var. drummondii Editor: SBuckley, 2010