Culms (23-)30-100 cm. Leaves 3-7 per culm; sheaths tight, inner band hyaline or straw colored, 6-18 cm, apex concave, glabrous; ligules rounded, 1-2.5 mm; blades plicate, 30-70 cm × 1.6-5 mm, widest leaf (2.6-)2.9-5 mm wide. Inflorescences (2.2-)3-8.5 cm; spikes 3-8; lateral spikes 3.6-11.2 mm, sessile, pistillate or gynecandrous, staminate portion 2-flowered, to 1 mm, pistillate portion 6-28-flowered, 3.6-11.2 mm; basal 2 spikes (5-)10-40 mm apart; terminal spike 7-15.5 mm, gynecandrous with staminate portion 3-14-flowered, 2-11(-14) × 0.8-1.6 mm and pistillate portion 10-25-flowered, 4.1-8 × 6.1-7.7 mm. Pistillate scales ovate, 1.4-2.2 × 1.1-2 mm, apex obtuse to acute. Staminate scales narrowly ovate, 1.6-2.4 × 1.1-1.9 mm, apex obtuse to acute. Anthers 0.8-1.45 mm. Perigynia spreading to reflexed, olive green, 6-14-veined abaxially, 0-5-veined adaxially, broadly to narrowly ovate, (2.8-)3-4.4 × 1.3-1.9(-2.1) mm, (1.6-)1.8-2.5 times as long as wide; beak 0.9-1.75 mm, 0.43-0.85 length of body, serrulate, teeth 0.15-0.35 mm. Achenes ovate, 1.1-1.8 × 0.9-1.4 mm.

Fruiting late spring-early summer. Boggy meadows, open or wooded stream banks, springheads, seeps; 700-1900 m; Ga., N.C., S.C., Tenn., Va.

Much like no. 52 [Carex wiegandii Mack.], but with a longer, more open infl mostly 3-8.5 cm, the lowest spikes set 1-4 cm apart; lvs ±equaling the stems, plicate to flat; perigynia 3-4.5 mm, olive- green, and only the prominent, 0.9-1.8 mm beak serrulate. Moist woods and boggy meadows and balds; Blue Ridge, from sw. Va. to nw. S.C. and ne. Ga. (C. muricata var. r.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.