Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
2. Carex L. -- Sedge34. Carex leptalea Wahl.
Densely tufted; culms slender, obtusely trigonous, 1-7 dm long, equaling or exceeding the leaves. Leaves 0.5-1.25 mm wide; sheaths tight, white-hyaline ventrally. Spikes solitary on the culms, bisexual, androgynous, few-flowered, 5-15 mm long; bracts none; staminate scales obtuse to acute, overlapping around the rachis; pistillate scales obtuse to cuspidate, shorter than the perigynia, or the tip of the lowest scale sometimes prolonged beyond the perigynium. Perigynia yellowish-green, nearly terete or somewhat flattened, oblong to narrowly elliptic, 2.5-5 mm long, finely many-nerved, beakless or short-beaked, the orifice entire; achenes trigonous-obovoid, 1.5-2 mm long; stigmas 3. Jun--Jul. Bogs and wet woods; rare, with records from McHenry, Pembina and Ransom counties, ND, Lawrence and Custer Counties, SD; (Labr. to AK, s to FL, MO, ND, NM and CA; also TX).
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