Carex paleacea Wahlenb.
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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, 3–8 dm, aphyllopodic, borne singly or few together on long stout rhizomes; main lvs 3–8 mm wide; bracts lf-like, sheathless; spikes widely spreading or drooping on slender peduncles, the staminate 1–3, mostly 2–4 cm, the pistillate below the staminate, 2–4, stout-cylindric, 2–5 cm, 5–8 mm thick excluding the scales; body of the pistillate scales ovate and obtuse to retuse, somewhat shorter than the perigynia, with brown sides, the conspicuous pale midvein a third as wide as the scale and prolonged into a rough flat awn to 1 cm; perigynia biconvex to planoconvex, glaucous-green, firm, elliptic, 2.2–3.5 mm, three-fifths as wide, 2-ribbed, otherwise nerveless or dorsally several-nerved, abruptly apiculate to a beak 0.2–0.5 mm; achene lenticular, loosely enveloped, strongly constricted on one side near the middle; 2n=71–73. Coastal salt-marshes; Greenl. and w. Can. to Mass.; n. Europe.