11. Carex atherodes Spreng.

Pl. 38 f–i; Map 149

Flowering stems 30–120 cm long. Leaf blades 3–50 cm long, 4–12 mm wide, thin, dull green, flat, glabrous on the upper surface, the undersurface usually sparsely hairy toward the base, the margins minutely roughened or toothed near the leaf tip. Leaf sheaths hairy, the ventral side dull brown, purplish tinged at the tip, the lowermost sheaths becoming dissected into threadlike fibers with age, the ligule longer than wide and usually V-shaped. Staminate spikes 20–60 mm long, the scales 5–7 mm long, oblanceolate, awned at the tip, short-hairy along the margins, yellowish brown with the midrib tan and the margins white or nearly so. Pistillate spikes 20–100 mm long, 8–15 mm wide, the scales 4–10 mm long, ovate to narrowly lanceolate, usually with a roughened awn at the tip, straw-colored to light brown with broad, thin, white margins, sometimes faintly reddish tinged. Perigynia 7–10 mm long, glabrous, the teeth 1.5–3.0 mm long, often somewhat spreading. Styles straight or often somewhat bent to the side near the base. Fruits with the main body 2.2–2.7 mm long, long-beaked, yellowish brown. 2n=74. May–July.

Uncommon, known only from Jackson and Mercer Counties (northern U.S. south to West Virginia, Arizona, and Oregon; Canada, Europe, Asia). Openings of bottomland forests and bottomland prairies.