Biorepository Data Portal

Culms densely tufted, lateral or central, ascending or lax to decumbent, 39-47 cm × 0.8-2 mm. Leaves: basal sheaths light brown; sheaths 6-22 mm; blades ascending, midrib and 2 lateral veins developed, occasionally slightly corrugated, 19-25 cm × 5-26 mm, blades of overwintering leaves smooth or, rarely, sparsely papillose abaxially. Inflorescences: peduncles of proximal spikes erect, 0-3.4 cm, of lateral spikes 1.4-3.3(-5.3) times as long as spikes they subtend; of terminal spikes 1-2.2 cm. Bracts 7.2-17.5 cm × 2-8 mm, bract blade of distal lateral spikes linear, narrower than spikes, widest bract blade of distalmost lateral spike 0.5-3.4 mm wide. Spikes (3-)4 per culm; lateral spikes 9-33 × 3.2-4 mm; terminal spike linear to clavate, 23-24(-34) × 1.5-3 mm. Pistillate scales 2.5-3 × 1.2-1.5 mm, apex acute or apiculate. Staminate scales 3-3.5 × 1-1.5 mm, oblong-ovate, margins white-hyaline or brownish, apex obtuse or acute. Anthers 2.6-3 mm. Perigynia 3-20 per spike, usually separate, ratio of longer lateral spike length to perigynia number 1.9-3.4, ascending, conspicuously (22-)25-32-veined, (2.6-)3.2-4.1(-4.6) × 1.2-1.6 mm; beak straight, 0.5-1.4 mm. Achenes broadly ellipsoid, 1.8-2.2(-3.4) × 1-1.4 mm. 2n = 40. Fruiting spring-early summer. Dry or moist, deciduous or mixed deciduous-evergreen forests, higher elevations southward; 0-1000 m; N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis. The Carex laxiflora complex contains a wide array of phenotypic variation and deserves further research. F. J. Hermann (1938) proposed the name C. laxiflora var. serrulata; however, among the numerous specimens of C. laxiflora we studied, the key characteristic of ciliate-serrulate bract-sheaths varied greatly.

Tufted, 3-7 dm; fertile stems erect or ascending, lateral or sometimes central, sharply triangular and narrowly winged, smooth or nearly so; basal sheaths light brown; lvs of the short sterile shoots 5-25 mm wide, of the fertile shoots narrower, 2-8 mm; bract-sheaths smooth or sometimes serrulate on the angles; terminal spike staminate, 1-2.5 cm, on a peduncle 1-2 cm; pistillate spikes 2-4, 1-3 cm, slender, scattered on short or elongate, erect peduncles, none basal; at least the lower pistillate scales cuspidate or short-awned; perigynia 5-15, only slightly or scarcely overlapping, 2.6-3.8 mm, finely many-nerved as well as 2-ribbed, obtusely trigonous, obovoid, tapering to a rather short, straight or slightly outcurved beak with an oblique, entire orifice; achene trigonous; 2n=40. Dry to mesic woods; Me. and s. Que. to Del. and Md., and in the mts. to N.C., Tenn., and Ala., w. to Wis. and Ind.; s. Mex.

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

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