Carex stipata Willd.
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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 - Stems stout, triangular, densely clustered, 3–10 dm; lvs coarse and often elongate; sheaths prolonged beyond the base of the blade, ventrally thin, fragile, and ± conspicuously cross-corrugated; spikes numerous, androgynous, small, few-fld, sessile, closely aggregated into a dense, compound infl 3–10 × 1–3 cm; bracts short and inconspicuous, or some of them setaceous and surpassing the spikes; scales mostly shorter than the perigynia, these greenish or greenish-stramineous, widely spreading (the infl appearing prickly because of the prominent beaks), lance-triangular or lance-ovate, gradually narrowed from the base to the tip, or a little more abruptly so near the middle, planoconvex, spongy-thickened at the base, prominently nerved-striate on both sides or seldom nerveless ventrally; achene lenticular; 2n=48, 52. Wet low ground; Nf. to Alas., s. to Fla., N.M., and Calif. Var. stipata, the common phase in our range, extending s. to N.C. and Tenn., has the main blades mostly 5–10 mm wide, the scales acuminate or merely cuspidate, the perigynia 4–5.2 (avg 4.7) mm and a third as wide. Var. maxima Chapm., the Gulf states phase, extending n. on the coastal plain to s. N.J. and inland to Mo. and Ind., is stouter, with larger and thicker heads and stems, the main blades 8–15 mm wide, the scales cuspidate or short-awned, the perigynia 5–6 (avg 5.4) mm and less than a third as wide, due to the relatively longer beak. (C. uberior)