Carex vaginata Tausch

  • 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 vaginata Tausch

  • Description

    Species Description - Stems 2–6 dm, few together, from long rhizomes, phyllopodic, the main lvs 2–5 mm wide; terminal spike staminate, 1–2 cm; pistillate spikes 1–3, often staminate at the tip, rather loosely spreading, widely separated, the lower peduncles elongate, the upper shorter; bracts with rather loose sheaths 1–2 cm and short blades shorter than the spikes; pistillate scales shorter and narrower than the perigynia, purplish-brown, with or without a narrow green center, usually acute; perigynia usually in 2 rows, the lower separated by internodes 2–5 mm, the upper ± overlapping, glabrous, 2-keeled, otherwise rather obscurely nerved, 3.5–5 mm, fusiform-obovoid, with a somewhat outcurved beak ca 1 mm; achene obovoid-trigonous with concave sides, nearly filling the perigynium; 2n=32. Wet woods and bogs, chiefly in calcareous districts; circumboreal, s. in Amer. to Me., n. N.Y., n. Mich., n. Minn., Sask., and B.C. (C. saltuensis, the Amer. plants)