179. Carex Glaucescens Ell. Southern Glaucous Sedge

Fig. 1046

Carex glaucescens Ell. Bot. S. C. and Ga. 2: 553. 1824.

Glabrous, light green, glaucous, culms stout, phyllopodic, erect, somewhat roughened on the angles above, 1 1/2°-4° tall. Leaves 5-10 to a culm, flat or involute towards base, rough, 1 1/2"-2 1/2" wide, usually exceeded by the culm, long-tapering, the basal sheaths strongly filamentose; lower bracts similar, shorter; staminate spike one, stalked, the scales strongly cuspidate; pistillate spikes 3-4. cylindric, dense, many-flowered, 1"-2' long, 3 1/2"-5" wide, slender-peduncled, at first erect, finely drooping; perigynia strongly glaucous, ascending, ovoid or obovoid, 3-angled, I 1/2 '-1 3/4" long, 1" wide or more, obscurely nerved, tapering into a short beak with entire orifice; scales with obovate body, about length of perigynia, abruptly long-cuspidate, reddish-brown with green midrib, squarrose; stigmas 3.

In swamps, Virginia to Florida and Mississippi. Tuly-Sept.

180. Carex Acutiformis Ehrh. Swamp Or Marsh Sedge

Fig. 1047

Carex acutiformis Ehrh. Beitr. 4: 43. 1789.

C. paludosa Gooden. Trans. Linn. Soc. 2: 202. 1794.

Culms stout, erect, sharp-angled, 2°-3° tall, smooth below, often rough above. Leaves 2i"-6" wide, flat, glaucous-green, equalling or sometimes exceeding the culm; lower bracts similar to the leaves, the upper short and narrow; staminate spikes 1-4, stalked; pistillate spikes 3-5, narrowly linear-cylin-dric, 1 1/2'-3' long, 2"-2 1/2" thick, 40-100-flowered, the upper sessile or nearly so and erect, the others slender-stalked, spreading or drooping; perigynia ovoid, l 1/2"-l 3/4" long, not inflated, strongly many-nerved, tapering into a very short and minutely 2-toothed beak; scales awn-tipped or acuminate, longer than the perigynia or the upper equalling them; stigmas 3.

In swamps and wet meadows, eastern Massachusetts, very locally naturalized from Europe. Lesser common sedge. Sniddle. June-Aug.

181. Carex Stricta Lam. Tussock Sedge

Fig. .1048

Carex stricta Lam. Encycl. 3: 387. 1789-C. stricta august at a Bailey, in A. Gray, Man. Ed. 6, 600. 1890. C. xerocarpa S. H. Wright, Am. Journ. Sci. (II.) 42: 334. 1866.

Glabrous, rather dark green, culms slender, aphyllo-podic, stiff, erect, usually in dense clumps, sharply 3-angled and very rough above, 1°-4° tall; stolons little developed. Leaves long, rarely overtopping the culm, very rough on the margins, 1"-2" wide, the lower sheaths becoming prominently filamentose; lower bract similar, sometimes equalling the culm; staminate spike solitary, or sometimes 2, stalked; pistillate spikes 2-5, very variable, linear-cylindric, or sometimes linear-oblong, often staminate at the top, very densely flowered, or loose at the base, 1/2'~4' long, 1"-2" thick, erect or somewhat spreading, all sessile or the lower stalked; perigynia ovate-elliptic, ascending, acute, faintly few-nerved or nerveless, 1 1/4" long, minutely beaked, the orifice entire or nearly so; scales dark with green margins and midvein, oblong or lanceolate, obtuse to acuminate and from much shorter than to somewhat exceeding perigynia, appressed; stigmas 2.

In swamps, Newfoundland to Ontario, Nebraska, Georgia and Texas. Hybridizes with C. lasiocarpa. July-Sept.