Carex tenax

Plants loosely cespitose; rhizomes stout. Culms 20-50 cm, smooth, glabrous. Leaf blades V-shaped in cross section when young, 1.5-2.8 mm wide, usually involute, proximally puberulent. Inflorescences: proximal bracts sheathless or sheath not more than 2(-5) mm; lateral spikes 10-20 × 5-9 mm, all in distal 1/2 of stem; terminal spike 10-32 × 1.5-3 mm. Pistillate scales 3-5-veined, ovate, 2.8-5 × 1.6-2.2 mm, proximal ones shorter than perigynia, apex acute. Staminate scales 3-veined, 4.5-5.5 × 1.6-2.2 mm. Perigynia 20-30-veined, subsessile, ovoid to obovoid, 4-6 × 1.9-2.4 mm, pilose, hairs not more than 0.2 mm; beak distinct or obscure, to 0.5 mm. Achenes sessile, 3-3.5 × 1.9-2 mm, almost filling bodies of perigynia.

Fruiting late spring-summer. Dry to dry-mesic, longleaf pine and sand-hill savannas; 0-200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex.