Carex lurida Wahlenb.

  • 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 lurida Wahlenb.

  • Description

    Species Description - Tufted, without long rhizomes; stems aphyllopodic, 2–10 dm, usually surpassed by the lvs, obtusely trigonous and smooth or nearly so, purplish at base; lvs septatenodulose, with flat blade (2–) 4–7 mm wide; ligule triangular, distinctly longer than wide; terminal spike staminate, 1–7 cm, its scales with the midrib prolonged into an evident awn; pistillate spikes 1–4, approximate, or the lower remote, sessile and erect or (especially the lower) evidently pedunculate and even drooping, 1–7.5 × 1.4–2 cm, densely fld; bracts leafy, surpassing the infl, with or without a sheathing base; pistillate scales rough-awned, or the upper merely acuminate; perigynia numerous, in many rows, 6–9 mm, ovoid or ovoid-globose, somewhat inflated, pale, smooth and shining, strongly ca 10-nerved, with a slender, bidentate beak half to almost as long as the body; achene concavely trigonous, densely granular, loosely enveloped in the lower part of the perigynium, the persistent style twisted or abruptly bent. Swamps and wet meadows and woods; N.S. to Minn., s. to Fla. and Mex.