Carex brevior Lunell

• 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 brevior Lunell

• Description

  Species Description - Densely tufted, 2–10 dm, aphyllopodic; lvs coarse and firm, 2–4 mm wide, much shorter than the stems; spikes mostly 3–6, gynaecandrous, stout, 6–10(–15) mm, sessile in a moniliform or interrupted to occasionally more congested spike 1.5–5 cm, greenish-stramineous to light-brown; bracts inconspicuous, shorter than the infl; pistillate scales largely hyaline-scarious, with firmer, often greenish midrib, distinctly narrower and tending to be shorter than the perigynia; perigynia crowded, stiffly ascending (the beaks tending to stand out from the body of the spike), 3.2–4.8 × 2.2–3.4 mm, 1.3–1.7 times as long as wide, the body ± strongly flattened, suborbicular, nerved on both sides (C. molesta) or more commonly nearly nerveless ventrally, wing-margined all around and serrulate distally, ± abruptly contracted to the flattened, serrulate beak 0.8–1.5 mm; achene lenticular, 1.6–2.2 × 1.3–1.9 mm; 2n=68. Widespread and abundant, usually in dry soil; Que. to Va., w. to the Pacific. (C. merritt-fernaldii; C. festucacea, misapplied)