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Carex viridula - (image 1 of 4)

Taxonomy

Family: Cyperaceae

Section Ceratocystis

Habitat

Calcareous shores and ponds, often in marl.

Associates

Distribution

Circumboreal, south in North America to NJ, IN, SD, and NM.

Morphology

Tufted perennial; stems 10-40 cm; leaves often equaling or surpassing the stems, mostly 1-3 mm wide; terminal spike staminate, slender, 7-21 mm; lateral spikes 2-4, pistillate or the upper androgynous, short, stout, 5-15 mm, sometimes compound, crowded and more or less sessile or the lower 1 or 2 more or less remote and evidently pedunculate; one or more of the bracts with an elongate blade much surpassing the inflorescence; pistillate scales shorter than the perigynia, thin and pale except the green midrib, varying to medium brown; perigynia 2.2-3.3 mm, more or less straight, mostly spreading or the lower reflexed, pale green to stramineous or yellowish, obovoid, distally empty and slightly inflated; beak slender, more or less smooth, 0.8-1.2 mm; achene trigonous, 1.1-1.4 mm.

Notes

Fruiting June to September

Wetland indicator: OBL

Can hybridize with C. flava where the two species occur together.

References

Ball, P.W. and A.A. Reznicek. 2002. Carex, In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, Eds. Flora of North America North of Mexico. Volume 23. Oxford University Press, New York.

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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