Comments
provided by eFloras
Plants from the south of the species range and from lower elevations northward are usually more robust and have more inflated, ovoid perigynia than northern or high-elevation plants. The latter are sometimes distinguished as Carex intumescens var. fernaldii L. H. Bailey.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Description
provided by eFloras
Plants cespitose or not, short-rhizomatous. Culms solitary or not, erect, (15–)30–80(–140) cm. Leaves 6–12; basal sheaths purplish red; sheath of distal leaf 0–1(–2.5) cm; ligules rounded, 1–8 mm; blades 8–27 cm × 3.5–8 mm. Inflorescences 2–15 cm; peduncles of proximal pistillate spikes 0.3–1.5 cm, basal 2 peduncles 0.2–2.1 cm apart; of terminal spike 0.5–4 cm; bracts leafy, sheathless, blades 6–21 × 2–6 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 1–4, often closely aggregated and difficult to distinguish, 1–12-flowered, ovoid to obovoid, 1–2.7 × 1–2.8 cm; terminal staminate spike 1, 1–5 cm × 1–3 mm. Pistillate scales 1–3-veined, lanceolate-ovate to ovate, 4–9.5 × 2–3.8 mm, apex acute to awned, awns rough, to 6.5 mm. Anthers 3, 2–4 mm. Perigynia ascending to spreading or the basalmost reflexed, strongly 13–23-veined, lanceoloid to ovoid, 10–16.5 × 2.5–6.5 mm, with satiny luster, glabrous; beak poorly defined, 2–4.2 mm. Achenes sessile, ellipsoid to obovoid, flat to convex faces, angles not thickened, 3.5–5.7 × (2.2–)2.5–3.9 mm; style same texture as achene.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Distribution
provided by eFloras
Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Flowering/Fruiting
provided by eFloras
Fruiting late spring–early summer.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Habitat
provided by eFloras
Dry-mesic to wet coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests, forest openings, thickets, wet meadows, ditches; 0–2000m.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA