Sedge, Fox

Description

Carex vulpinoidea, commonly known as Fox Sedge or Brown Fox Sedge, is a native perennial cool season sedge.  This sedge sometimes forms colonies of plants.

Like other wetland sedges, Fox Sedge is a food plant of sedge grasshoppers, the Common Meadow Katydid, caterpillars of several skippers, caterpillars of the Eyed Brown, caterpillars of the Tufted Sedge Moth and other moths, semi-aquatic leaf beetles, the Sedge Billbug, seed bugs, plant bugs, the Yellow Sugarcane Aphid and other aphids, leafhoppers, and other insects. Some wetland birds feed on the seeds or seedheads of sedges in wetlands; these species include the Mallard and other ducks, Sora and Virginia Rail, Swamp Sparrow and other granivorous songbirds, Trumpeter Swan, and some sandpipers. The Canada Goose also browses on the foliage of sedges. When the Brown Fox Sedge forms large colonies, it provides good cover for many species of wetland animals, including nesting habitat for the Sedge Wren.

This species prefers full to partial sun, wet to moist conditions, and soil containing loam, silt, clay, and/or gravel. Sometimes this robust sedge can spread aggressively, especially in disturbed areas where there is reduced competition from other plants. Temporary flooding is tolerated.

Habitats include openings in floodplain woodlands, swamps, soggy thickets, river-bottom prairies, prairie swales, sedge meadows, low areas along ponds, gravelly seeps, streambanks, and ditches. This sedge is often found in degraded wetlands and wetlands that are seasonally flooded during the spring. Sometimes it is the dominant sedge in sedge meadows.