| Author | Jermy A.C., Chater, A.O. & David, R.W. |
| Year | 1982 |
| Title | Sedges of the British Isles |
| ISBN | 0 901158 05 4 |
| Series | BSBI Handbooks |
| Type | Book/Report |
| How Complete | All the British species known at the time |
| Source | BSBI Handbooks, No 1, Second edition, 268pp, Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland (BSBI) |
| Illustrations | Line drawings facing the species descriptions |
| Review (by Malcolm Storey) | After a brief introduction, potentially confusing abnormalities (aberrant inflorescences, grazing damage, effects of strong sunshine) and hybrids are discussed. The next chapter describes the structure of the Carex plant, including growth habit, rhizomes and roots, leaves and ligules, male and female inflorescences and those all-important utricles. The ecology chapter follows, and this is particularly pertinent since Carex are more than usually tied to the base status. Habitat lists enumerate the species found in 14 different habitats. The main dichotomus Key to Carex Species in Fruit is followed by a Key to Non-flowering Specimens of Carex and other Similar Cyperaceae. The major portion of the book consists of detailed species accounts facing line-drawings of the plant, ligule, inflorescence, male flower, female flower, utricle, fruit in utricle and leaf and stem sections. 10km distribution maps are presented two to a page, but these are now superseded by the later BSBI Atlas. New edition 2007. |
| News | A new edition is expected in 2007 |
| Examine |  with x8 or x10 hand lens |
| Specimen Preparation | Select specimens with mature utricles. |
| Identification difficulty | Given suitably ripe material, sedges are mostly quite straightforward. When not in fruit, they are much more difficult. |
