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Carex canescens - (image 1 of 3)

Taxonomy

Family: Cyperaceae

Section Glareosae     

Habitat

Swamps and bogs.

Associates

Distribution

Circumboreal, south to VA, OH, MN, AZ, and CA.

Morphology

Tufted perennial from short rhizomes; stems 20-60 cm; leaves grayish-green, clustered near the base, often shorter than the culms, flat, 1.5-3.5 mm wide; spikes 4-8, gynaecandrous, 5-10 mm, sessile, the upper approximate, the lower usually somewhat remote, gray-green, becoming pale-stramineous; pistillate scales mostly shorter than the perigynia; perigynia mostly (10-)15-30, ascending, mostly 1.8-2.5 mm, planoconvex, not thin-edged, somewhat corky-thickened proximally, elliptic or elliptic-ovate, with a minute beak apiculation to 0.5 mm, finely nerved on both faces, the ventral nerves fewer than the dorsal; dorsal suture short and inconspicuous, to 0.4(-0.7) mm or nearly obsolete; achene lenticular, filling the perigynium.

Notes

Fruiting June to August

Wetland indicator: OBL

A similar species, C. brunnescens, has fewer perigynia per spike (mostly 5-10, up to 15) lacking ventral nerves or the ventral nerves obscure. In C. brunnescens the perigynia tend to be more spreading and therefore they more noticeably interrupt the outline of the spike than they do in C. canescens. 

References

Gleason, Henry A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants of Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. Second Ed.
The New York Botanical Garden. Bronx, NY

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