Carex grayi Carey

• 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 grayi J.Carey

• Description

  Species Description - Stems 3–9 dm, solitary or in small clusters, scabrous on the angles above; rhizomes wanting; basal sheaths persistent, purplish-red; lvs 4–11 mm wide, the uppermost nonbracteal one (as also the bracts) sheathless or with a sheath seldom over 1 cm; terminal spike staminate, 0.5–5.5 cm, on a peduncle of 0.5–6 cm; pistillate spikes 1 or 2, densely fld, globular, ± approximate, on peduncles 0.7– 3.5 cm, their bracts leafy, 8–26 cm; pistillate scales 4–11 mm, lance-ovate to orbicular-ovate, often tipped with a rough awn to 7 mm; perigynia 8–35, radiating in all directions from the short axis, dull, sometimes hispidulous, 12.5–20 × 4–8 mm, strongly 16–25-nerved, rhombic-ovoid, cuneate to the base, tapering from the widest point to a poorly defined, bidentate beak 1.5–3 mm, the teeth hispidulous internally; achene 3.3–4.8 × 2.6–3.7 mm, convexly trigonous, not thickened on the angles; style persistent but withering, sometimes contorted; 2n=52, 54. Moist woods; Mass., Vt., s. Que., and s. Ont. to Wis. and se. Minn., s. to Ga. and Mo.