Carex straminea Willd.

  • 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 straminea Willd.

  • Description

    Species Description - Densely tufted, aphyllopodic, 4–10 dm; main lvs 2–3 mm wide, shorter than the stem, their sheaths ventrally green-veined almost to the summit, with only a short hyaline area; spikes 4–8, gynaecandrous, sessile, well separated in an infl 3–6 cm, or the uppermost aggregated, the pistillate part short-ovoid or subglobose, 7–10 mm, often with an elongate staminate base; pistillate scales lanceolate, much narrower and somewhat shorter than the perigynia, hyaline or nearly so, brown-tinged with a paler midnerve, acuminate to shortly aristate; perigynia very flat and thin, lightly but sharply nerved on both faces, the flattened, serrulate beak half as long as the body; achene lenticular, 1.5 × 0.75 mm. Var. straminea, of nonsaline swamps and wet meadows, from Mass. to D.C., w. to Mich. and Ind., has the perigynia 4–5.2 mm, half to two-thirds as wide, broadest at a third to two-fifths of their length, the body ovate to orbicular. (C. richii) Var. invisa W. Boott, of salt marshes from Nf. to Va., has the perigynia 4.2–5.5 mm, two-fifths or three-fifths as wide, broadest at two-fifths to half of their length, the body orbicular to obovate. (C. hormathodes)