Biorepository Data Portal

Plants densely cespitose. Culms lateral, erect or ascending, usually overtopping vegetative shoots, 24-54 cm × 0.7-1 mm. Leaves: basal sheaths purple, 7-18 mm; blades erect or ascending, evergreen, midrib and 2 lateral veins strongly developed, 14-42 cm × 8-32 mm, older leaves often shriveling or dead at tips. Inflorescences: spikes 3-5 per culm, scattered; peduncle of pistillate spikes erect or spreading, rarely drooping, exserted 0-18 mm; bracts from middle and proximal portions of culms reduced, 0.8-2 cm × 2-3.5 mm. Pistillate spikes the proximal basal, 8-30 × 4-7 mm. Staminate spike 1, pedunculate, oblanceolate to linear, 8-20 × 2-3.5 mm. Pistillate scales slightly keeled, 3.2-4.2 × 1.8-2.2 mm, midribs green, margins hyaline with purple outward, apex cuspidate to acuminate to acute. Staminate scales 3-6 × 1.5-2 mm, midveins green or purple, margins dark purple, apex obtuse. Anthers 3.2-4.2 mm. Perigynia (4-)9-13(-15) per spike, overlapping, finely veined, elliptic, 3.7-4.9 × 1.6-2 mm; beak constricted. Achenes ovoid, 2.2-2.7 × 1.5-1.9 mm, sides flat to slightly concave at maturity, tightly fitting in perigynia. Style ascending from achene through entire orifice. 2n = 50, 52. Fruiting spring. Rich, moist, deciduous or mixed deciduous-evergreen forests, on slopes along streams or along edges of moist depressions, southward in mountain gorges; 100-600 m; N.B., Ont., Que.; Conn., Ga., Ind., Iowa, Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Pa., S.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Tufted, 3-6 dm; fertile stems triangular, roughened on the angles, purple at base; basal sheaths purple; lvs of the sterile shoots elongate, often surpassing the fertile stems, 10-30 mm wide, roughened on the margins and toward the tip on the main veins; lvs of the fertile stem reduced to bladeless or nearly bladeless purple sheaths; terminal spike staminate, 1-2 cm, purplish, long-peduncled; pistillate spikes 2-4, 1-3 cm, scattered, the lowest on a basal peduncle to 2 cm; pistillate scales acuminate to cuspidate; perigynia 4-15, crowded and overlapping, 3.7-5 mm, finely many-nerved as well as 2-ribbed, sharply trigonous, elliptic in outline, constricted into a short, oblique beak with entire orifice; achene sharply trigonous; 2n=50, 52. Rich moist woods; N.B. and s. Que. to Minn., s. Ind., Ky., N.J., Md., and in the mts. to n. Ga. Tufted, 3-6 dm; fertile stems triangular, roughened on the angles, purple at base; basal sheaths purple; lvs of the sterile shoots elongate, often surpassing the fertile stems, 10-30 mm wide, roughened on the margins and toward the tip on the main veins; lvs of the fertile stem reduced to bladeless or nearly bladeless purple sheaths; terminal spike staminate, 1-2 cm, purplish, long-peduncled; pistillate spikes 2-4, 1-3 cm, scattered, the lowest on a basal peduncle to 2 cm; pistillate scales acuminate to cuspidate; perigynia 4-15, crowded and overlapping, 3.7-5 mm, finely many-nerved as well as 2-ribbed, sharply trigonous, elliptic in outline, constricted into a short, oblique beak with entire orifice; achene sharply trigonous; 2n=50, 52. Rich moist woods; N.B. and s. Que. to Minn., s. Ind., Ky., N.J., Md., and in the mts. to n. Ga.

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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