Carex canescens L.

  • Authority

    Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

  • Family

    Cyperaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Carex canescens L.

  • Description

    Species Description - Tufted, 2–6 dm; lvs mostly somewhat glaucous or grayish-green in life, clustered near the base, often shorter than the stems, ± flat, 1.5–3.5 mm wide; bracts inconspicuous, or the lowest ones setaceous-tipped and surpassing the spikes; spikes 4–8, gynaecandrous, 5–10 mm, sessile, the upper approximate, the lower usually somewhat remote, silvery-greenish to pale grayish or pale-stramineous; pistillate scales mostly shorter than the perigynia, these mostly (10–)15–30, ascending (the short beaks not interrupting the outline of the spike), mostly 1.8–2.5 mm, planoconvex, not thin-edged, minutely rough-textured, somewhat corky-thickened below, not especially thin-walled distally, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, with a beak-apiculation to 0.5 mm, evidently but rather finely nerved on both faces, the ventral nerves fewer than the dorsal; dorsal suture short and inconspicuous, to ca 0.4(–0.7) mm, or practically obsolete; achene lenticular, filling the perigynium; 2n=54, 56. Swamps and bogs; circumboreal, s. to Va., O., Minn., Ariz., and Calif.