Carex purpurifera Mack.

  • 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 purpurifera Mack.

  • Description

    Species Description - Tufted, 3–7 dm; fertile stems lateral, ascending or decumbent, papillate on the angles; basal sheaths purple; lvs glaucous-green, those of the elongate sterile shoots 5–10 mm wide, of the fertile ones somewhat smaller; terminal spike staminate, 1–3 cm, purplish, on a peduncle 0.5–5 cm; pistillate spikes mostly 3, slender, widely separated but none basal, 1.5–4.5 cm; pistillate scales acute to short-awned; perigynia 4–16, loosely alternating, scarcely overlapping, 3.5–4.5 mm, finely many-nerved as well as 2-ribbed, obtusely trigonous, fusiform, often obliquely so, the short, often ill-defined beak with an oblique, entire orifice; achene trigonous; 2n=34–38. Dry to mesic woods, especially on limestone escarpments; Ky. and w. Va. to n. Ga. and n. Ala. (C. laxiflora var. p.)