Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
62. Cyperaceae, the Sedge Family
2. Carex L. -- Sedge53. Carex tetanica Schkuhr
Tufted from slender rhizomes; culms trigonous, 1-6 dm long, rough above. Leaves 1-5 mm wide; sheaths tight, white or yellowish-hyaline ventrally. Spikes unisexual, terminal spike staminate, 1-3 cm long; lateral spikes pistillate, usually widely separated, the lower ones peduncled, short-cylindric, loosely flowered, 6-30 mm long, 3-5 mm thick, with perigynia in 3 rows; bracts sheathing, the blades usually not exceeding the inflorescence; pistillate scales purplish-brown on the margins, obtuse to acute or short-awned, as wide but shorter than the perigynia. Perigynia green, obscurely trigonous, obovoid-fusiform, 2-4 mm long, ca. 1/2 as wide, 2-ribbed, with fewer than 10 additional faint nerves; beak minute, bent; achenes trigonous with concave sides, 2-2.5 mm long; stigmas 3. Jun--Jul. Wet meadows, low prairie and boggy or springy places; occasional from n ND to e SD, where common; also s SD and NE; (MA to Alta., s to NJ, VA, MO and NE).
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