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Carex brevior - (image 1 of 2)

Taxonomy

Family: Cyperaceae

Section Ovales  

Habitat

Dry soil, usually in open habitats in calcareous soil.

Associates

Distribution

Quebec to VA, west to the Pacific.

Morphology

Tufted perennial, 20-100 cm, aphyllopodic; leaves firm, 2-4 mm wide, much shorter than stems; spikes mostly 3-6, gynaecandrous, stout, sessile, greenish-stramineous to light brown; bracts inconspicuous, shorter than the inflorescence; pistillate scales hyaline-scarious, with a firmer, often greenish midrib, narrower and tending to be shorter than the perigynia; perigynia crowded, stiffly ascending, 3.2-4.8 mm long, 1.3-1.7 times as long as wide, the body flattened, suborbicular, nearly nerveless ventrally, wing-margined all around and serrulate distally, abruptly contracted to the flattened, serrulate beak 0.8-1.5 mm; achene lenticular.

Notes

Fruiting June to August

Wetland indicator: FAC

This species is similar to C. molesta but the body of the perigynium is widest just below the middle (vs. widest about the middle) and nearly nerveless ventrally (vs. distinctly veined ventrally).

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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