Carex hystericina Willd.

• 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 hystericina Muhl. ex Willd.

• Description

  Species Description - Stems 3–10 dm, rather slender, clustered on a short, stout rhizome; lvs tending to be septate-nodulose (especially the sheaths), the long flat blade 3–9 mm wide; bracts subtending the lowest pistillate spike sheathless or with only a short sheath, and with a long blade somewhat surpassing the infl, the other bracts much reduced or wanting; terminal spike staminate, 2–4 cm; pistillate spikes several, approximate or the lowest one remote, 1.5–4 × 1–1.5 cm, the lower ones loosely nodding on slender, flexuous peduncles, the uppermost often subsessile and loosely ascending-spreading; pistillate scales with a short, largely scarious or hyaline body only 1–2 mm and a prominent rough awn-tip2–6 mm; perigynia very numerous, densely crowded, mainly spreading or ascending-spreading, usually pale greenish, 5–7 mm, prominently (12–)15–20-nerved, thin-textured, slightly inflated and nearly round in cross-section, scarcely stipitate, lanceolate or lance-ovate, rather abruptly tapering to the conspicuous, slender beak with short straight teeth 0.3–0.9 mm; achene trigonous, loose in the lower half of the perigynium, continuous with the persistent, bony style, which becomes flexuous or contorted as the achene matures; 2n=58. Swamps, wet meadows, and shores; N.B. and Que. to Wash., s. to Va., Ky., Tex., and Calif.