Carex bigelowii; The Stiff Sedge is a very common sedge growing almost everywhere on Iceland, but for the most barren desert areas of the interior highlands. It is one of the smaller sedges (about 30 cm tall give or take 10cm more or less) wich one can recognize by the well-developed rosette leaves (through rootstocks many plantlets are often found on one spot) and the cylindrical shaped female (usually 2) and male spikes. The spikes are closely spaced on a stiff culm.
The Stiff Sedge (C. bigelowii) resembles the other very common sedege on Iceland, being the Common Sedge (C. nigra). The fundamental differences are:
The spikelets are compactly grouped at the top of the stiff sedge flowering stalk, whereas they are freely spaced along the flowering stalk in the common sedge;
The leaf margins are rolled up in the stiff sedge (not in the common sedge). It can be seen clearly on the opening-photo on the larger leaf at the tip where the leaf-margins - upfolded - touch one-other.
It is a member of the sedge family (Cyperaceae)
