Pine Barren Sedge

Culms obtusely trigonous in cross section, 45–100(–160) cm, smooth. Leaves: ligules 3–12 mm, mostly longer than wide; blades yellowish or light green, widest leaves 1.8–6 mm wide, smooth or sometimes papillose, especially distally. Inflorescences (3–)5–30(–45) cm; proximal (1–)2–3 spikes pistillate, erect or the proximal spreading, aggregated or the proximal sometimes remote, ovoid to short-cylindric. Pistillate scales ovate, 1/3–2/3 as long as perigynia, apex acute to acuminate. Anthers 2.3–5.1 mm. Perigynia spreading or the proximal somewhat reflexed, yellowish green, 22–34-veined, inflated, ovate to narrowly ovate, 6.4–10.7 × 2–3.5 mm, 2.6–3.9 times as long as wide, apex contracted; beak 1.3–3 mm. Achenes 2.8–3.6 × 1.6–2.2 mm.

Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C.

Fruiting spring–early summer.

Wet savannas, wet open forests, seeps, stream banks, often in shallow water, in sandy or peaty, acidic soils; 0–200m.

Carex turgescens Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 419. 1836
Cespitose from slender, elongate rootstocks, the stolons long, slender, horizontal, the culms 6-9 dm. high, slender, erect, obtusely triangular, much exceeding the leaves, smooth or nearly so, phyllopodic, brownish and more or less fibrillose at base; leaves with well-developed blades 3-6 to a fertile culm, on the lower third but not bunched, sparingly septate-nodulose, the blades firm, light-green, flat above with more or less revolute margins, channeled towards base, usually 1-3 dm. long, 1.5-5 mm. wide, long-attenuate, much roughened towards the apex, the sheaths tight, chestnut-brown-tinged at mouth, and prolonged upward beyond base of blade, the ligule much longer than wide; staminate spike solitary, slender-peduncled, narrowly linear, 3.5-5 cm. long, 2.5-4 mm. wide, the peduncle rough, the scales obovate, obtuse, light-reddish-brown with green 1-3-nerved center and white-hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, widely separate or sometimes approximate, erect, the upper on peduncles exserted one half to two times length of spikes, the lower on peduncles exserted 2-5 times length of spikes, the peduncles roughish, ancipital, the spikes oblong to globose, 2-3 cm. long, 1.5-2.5 cm. wide, loosely flowered, containing 10-20 strongly spreading perigynia in several rows; bracts leaflet-like, the lowest very long-sheathing, the upper shorter-sheathing, from much shorter than to exceeding inflorescence ; scales ovate, acute to cuspidate, long-persistent, pale-yellowish-brown with strongly 5-7-ribbed green center and hyaline margins, about half width and one third to one half length of perigynia; perigynia lanceolate-ovoid, suborbicular in cross-section, somewhat inflated, 8-11 mm. long, 3-3.5 mm. wide, olive-green or becoming brownish-yellow, subcoriaceous, strongly and coarsely 20-30-ribbed, densely puncticulate, rounded and slightly tapering and substipitate at base, tapering at apex into the bidentate, slightly serrulate, hyaline-tipped beak 2-3 mm. long, the teeth stiff, erect, ciliate-scabrous within; achenes broadly obovoid, 3-3.5 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. wide, loosely enveloped in lower half of perigynium-body, triangular with concave sides, short-stipitate, yellowish, abruptly apiculate and jointed with the long, straight, slender style; stigmas 3, slender, reddish-brown, rather short.
Type locality: "Hab. New Orleans, Dr. T. Ingalls."
Distribution: Wet pine lands, North Carolina to Florida and Louisiana. (Specimens examined from South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana.)