Mead's Sedge

Carex meadii Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 43 : 90. 1842
Carex multinervis Bock. Flora 38: 596. 1855. (Type doubtfully from Texas.)
Carex panicea var. Meadii OIney, Caric. Bor.-Am. 2. 1871. (Based on C. Meadii Dewey.)
Carex panicea var. Canbyi OIney and /. prolifera OIney, Caric. Bor.-Am. 3. 1871. (Names only, but
type from Delaware County, Pennsylvanica.) Carex tetanica var. Meadii L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: US. 1886. "Carex panicea L." Olney; L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: US. in part. 1886. (As synonym of
C. Utattica var. Meadii L. H. Baiiey.) Carex telanica var. Canbyi Porter, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1887: 76. 1887. (Based on C. panicea vslt.
Canbyi Olney.) Carex Ulanica var. Carleri Porter, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1887: 76. 1887. (T>'pe from New Texas,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.) Carex Utattica var. Meadii f. Canbyi Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4=»: 515. 1909. (Based on
C. tetanica var. Canbyi Porter.)
Rootstocks slender, often very elongate, the clumps small or medium-sized, sending forth long, horizontal, deep-seated, whitish, slender stolons, the culms 2-5 dm. high, stoutish, stiff, phyllopodic, exceeding the leaves, sharply triangular, smooth or little roughened, brovfnish or slightly purplish-tinged, and often fibrillose at base; sterile shoots short or elongate, phyllopodic; leaves with well-developed blades 3-6 to a fertile culm, clustered towards the base, the blades grayish-green, thickish, flat, usually 7-15 cm, long, 2.5-7 mm, wide, smooth-margined and with edges involute towards base, roughened towards the apex on the margins; sterileciilm leaves more numerous; sheaths tight, smooth, not readily ruptured, concave at mouth, the ligule ver>' short; terminal spike staminate, on a long rough peduncle, the spike linear or oblong-clavate, 1.5-4 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, very obtuse, purplish-red with 3-nerved green center and hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 1-3, widely separate, erect, the lower long-exsert-peduncled, the upper short-exsert-peduncled, the peduncles rough, the spikes oblong or linear-oblong, 1-3.5 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, containing 8-30 closely arranged ascending perigynia in several rows; bracts leaflet-like, short, shorter than the culms, strongly sheathing, the sheaths somewhat enlarged upward, smooth, rather loose; scales very variable, ovate, strongly-awned to obtuse, as wide as or wider than the perigynia and from half the length to exceeding the perigynia, purplish-brown with 3-nerved green center and hyaline margins; perigynia obovoid, obtusely triangular, somewhat turgid at maturity, 2-keeled and strongly many-nerved, 3-5 mm. long, 1.75-2.5 mm, wide, membranaceous, puncticulate, yellowish-green or becoming brownish, sessile, tapering to the base, abruptly narrowed at apex into a minute more or less strongly bent beak, with entire or emarginate purplish-tinged orifice; achenes broadly obovoid, tapering at base, sessile, 2.75-3.5 mm. long, 1.5-2.5 mm. wide, closely enveloped, triangular with concave sides and blunt angles, brownishblack with greenish angles, strongly granular, abruptly strongly apiculate, jointed with the short, stoutish style ; stigmas three, slender, reddish-brown, rather long.
Type locality: "Found by Dr. S. B. Mead at Augusta, Illinois."
Distribution*: Prairies and meadows, in calcareous districts, western New Jersey to Saskatchewan, and southward to Georgia and Texas. (Specimens examined from western New Jersey, Penn sylvania. North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas.)