Beaked sedge – Water horsetail
	Carex utriculata – Equisetum fluviatile
	n = 6
	III.A.3.f. Subarctic Lowland Sedge Wet Meadow
	Ecosystem: Relict Lakebed / Depression

Beaked sedge (Carex utriculata) - water horsetail (Equisetum fluviatile) and similar types have been well described for Alaska. Craighead et. al. (1988) describe it for Northwest Alaska in their Equisetum – Sedge Marsh Subcomplex.  Nearer to the Kenai lowlands, both DeVelice et.al. (1999) and Boggs (2000) describe both a beaked sedge and a water horsetail type.  On the Kenai lowlands these two monotypes mix together in a narrow zone at the edge of open water pools, combining to form the beaked sedge – water horsetail type.

Standing water dominates this site, and the only other plant commonly present is buckbean (Menyanthes trifoliata).  Beaked sedge - water horsetail is more common than the sample number indicates.  It occupies the edges of pools, in the strang-flark-pool complex commonly found on relict glacial lakebed peatland complexes, and in shallow kettles.

Emergent (rooted underwater) beaked sedge cover is open; water horsetail is generally uniform and less abundant.  It occurs just below the zone where livid sedge (C. livida) dominates.  

Average water depth is about 7 centimeters (although at an unusual site north of Nikiski the water table was encountered at 120 cm), and the submerged organic layer is greater than a meter thick.  The pH can be near neutral, but is typically moderately acid (5.5).  This type is always a jurisdictional wetland.

Table 1.  Summary of plant frequency and average cover for plants occurring in more than 50% of plots.

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