31. Section Vesicariae (Tuck.) J. Carey
Plants monoecious, with
rhizomes poorly developed and short-creeping or well developed and
long-creeping, forming dense clumps or loose colonies, the sheaths of previous
season’s basal leaves usually persisting and noticeable. Vegetative stems well
developed, with several leaves. Flowering stems erect or ascending, glabrous,
but often somewhat roughened on the angles near the tip. Leaves basal and along
the stems, glabrous. Leaf blades with the margins often minutely roughened or
toothed near the tip, flat or somewhat corrugated in cross-section, the margins
sometimes slightly curled under. Leaf sheaths with the ventral side thin
(except sometimes in C. vesicaria) and white to yellowish tinged,
truncate or concave at the tip. Inflorescences with 2–9 loosely spaced spikes,
the uppermost 1–4(–6) spikes staminate or mostly so, the pistillate spikes 1–6.
Staminate spikes linear in outline, sessile to short-stalked, erect or
ascending. Pistillate spikes short- to long-stalked, erect to ascending or
nodding or drooping, with numerous perigynia, the bracts leaflike, the
lowermost bracts longer than the inflorescence. Perigynia 4–9 mm long, more or
less inflated, circular to bluntly trigonous in cross-section, tapered to a
conical beak with 2 narrow, stiff, spreading to ascending teeth at the tip, the
base rounded or more or less angled, the surface with 7–20 strong nerves,
glabrous, shiny. Styles persistent, straight or contorted (abruptly bent,
curved, or looped) in the lower half, not jointed to the main body of the
fruit, which is long-beaked at maturity. Stigmas 3. Fruits strongly trigonous
in cross-section with flat to concave sides, the angles blunt or thickened,
yellow to brown. About 45 species, North America to South America, Europe,
Africa, Asia, south to Australia.