Scirpus expansus Fernald
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Authority
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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Family
Cyperaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Perennial from long reddish rhizomes; stems arising singly, stout, to 2 m; lower sheaths anthocyanic at base and usually also at the orifice; blades 1–2 cm wide; infl twice or thrice branched with numerous long rays mostly at acute angles; spikelets 2.5–5 mm, ovoid to seldom cylindric, sessile in small glomerules; scales 1.3–2.2 mm, broadly oval, obtuse or minutely mucronulate, with broad green midstrip, the thin sides greenish, becoming black; bristles 6, pale or light brown, shorter to somewhat longer than the achene, nearly straight, retrorsely barbellate almost to the base, deciduous; style trifid; achene pale brown or purplish-brown, 1–1.6 mm, compressed-trigonous, broadly obovoid, minutely beaked; 2n=64. Swamps and streamsides; Me. to Ga., w. irregularly to O. and Mich. Fr July, Aug. Closely allied to the Eurasian S. sylvaticus L. (S. sylvaticus var. bissellii, a hybrid of nos. 21 [Scirpus microcarpus C. Presl] and 23 [Scirpus expansus Fernald])