Carex utriculata Boott
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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 - Colonial by long, stout, deep-seated creeping rhizomes, sometimes forming a dense sod; stems 5–12 dm, bluntly trigonous, smoother than in no. 220 [Carex bullata Willd.]; lvs septate-nodulose (especially the sheaths), flat, yellow-green, smooth above, the larger ones 5–12 mm wide; lvs subtending the pistillate spikes nearly or quite sheathless, but at least the lowest one with an elongate blade 1–2 times as long as the infl; spikes several, remote, forming an elongate infl, ± erect, the upper ones staminate and 2–7 cm, the lower pistillate, 2–10 cm, ca 1(–1.5) cm thick at maturity, only the lowest one sometimes evidently pedunculate; pistillate scales narrower and usually shorter than the perigynia, acutish to more often acuminate or short-awned; perigynia densely crowded, mostly in 8+ vertical rows, widely spreading at maturity, glabrous, shining, ± strongly 8–16-nerved, 4–7 mm, the inflated, broadly ellipsoid to ovoid or subglobose body rather abruptly contracted to an evident smooth beak 1–2 mm with short (0.2–0.8 mm) teeth; achene yellowish, trigonous, 1.3–2 mm, loose in the lower half of the perigynium, its persistent, bony style becoming strongly flexuous or contorted with maturity; 2n=82. Wet soil or shallow water; boreal Amer., s. to Del., Ind., Nebr., N.M., and Calif. (C. rostrata, misapplied)