Carex vesicaria L.
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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 3–10 dm, sharply trigonous, strongly scabrous above, loosely to densely clustered on a system of rather short, stout, branching rhizomes; lvs tending to be septate-nodulose, the blade elongate, flat, 3–8 mm wide; those subtending the pistillate spikes sheathless or nearly so but with elongate blade; spikes several, sessile or inconspicuously short-pedunculate, ± erect, remote, the lower pistillate, the upper staminate, or one of them androgynous; staminate spikes 2–7 cm; pistillate spikes 2–7 × 1–1.5(–2) cm at maturity; pistillate scales somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia, thin, acutish to long-acuminate but scarcely awned; perigynia crowded, ascending, ± in 6(–8) vertical rows, 5–8 × 2–3 mm, strongly 10–20- ribbed, lanceolate or lance-ovate in outline, bladdery-inflated below, gradually tapering to the flatter, often poorly defined beak with evident short (0.3–1.2 mm) teeth; achene yellowish, trigonous, 1.7–2.4 mm, loose in the lower part of the perigynium, continuous with the bony, eventually flexuous to strongly contorted style; 2n=74, 82. Wet soil or shallow water in bogs or swamps and the margins of ponds or streams; circumboreal, s. in Amer. to Del., Ky., Ind., Mo., and Calif. Our plants belong to the widespread var. vesicaria.