Carex alata

Plants densely cespitose. Culms 30-140 cm. Leaves: sheaths adaxially conspicuously green-veined nearly to collar, narrow hyaline band or sharp Y-shaped region at collar, adaxially firm, sometimes papillose, summits U-shaped; distal ligules 2.8-8 mm; blades 3-7 per fertile culm, 11-50 cm × 2.5-6 mm. Inflorescences dense or open, pale green or brown, 2-6.5 cm × 7-20 mm; proximal internode 3-13 mm; 2d internode 4-10 mm; proximal bracts scalelike with bristle tips shorter than inflorescences. Spikes 3-11, distant, distinct, ellipsoid to ovoid, 6-20 × 4-9 mm, base rounded or short-acute, apex broadly acute to obtuse. Pistillate scales white-hyaline or tan, with green midstripe extending to tip, lanceolate, 2.8-3.5(-3.8) mm, shorter or longer and much narrower than perigynia, apex firm, acuminate or awned to 0.8 mm. Perigynia ± spreading, light or golden brown, faintly 3-8-veined on each face, obovate, flat except over achene, 4-5.5 × 2.5-3.8 mm, 0.4-0.5 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.8-1.5 mm wide; beak light brown at tip, flat, 0.85-2.2 mm, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture with light brown margin, distance from beak tip to achene 1.8-3 mm. Achenes oblong, 1.7-2 × 0.9-1.1 mm, 0.3-0.4 mm thick. 2n = 74.

Fruiting late spring-mid summer. Peaty shores, marshes, wet thickets, woods; 0-400 m; Ont.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Mass., Mich., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

Tufted, aphyllopodic, 3-10 dm; main lvs 2-4 mm wide, shorter than the stems, their sheaths ventrally green-veined almost to the summit, with only a short hyaline area; spikes 4-8, gynaecandrous, silvery-green or silvery-brown, subglobose to ovoid, 8-13 mm, obtuse at base with few staminate fls, sessile and closely aggregated in an erect cluster 2-4 cm; pistillate scales shorter than the perigynia, ovate or lance-ovate, nearly hyaline with a narrow green center, short-aristate; perigynia flat, 3.7-4.9 נ2.8-3.5 mm, 1.25-1.7 times as long as wide, several-nerved on both faces, broadest near or even above the middle, broadly rounded to the narrow beak less than half as long as the obovate body; achene lenticular, 1.5-2 נ1 mm. Wet soil, mostly near the coast, from Mass. to Fla. and Tex., also inland in N.Y., O., s. Ont., Mich., Ind., and Mo.

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.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Infrequent in swamps and sandy swales in the lake area. It is seldom plentiful in any locality; frequently only one or two plants can be found at a station.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 10

Wetland Indicator Status: OBL