82. Carex crinita Lam. (fringed sedge)

Pl. 54 a–e; Map 198

C. crinita var. brevicrinis Fernald

Plants with short-creeping rhizomes, forming dense clumps. Flowering stems 40–160 cm long, longer than the leaves, erect to ascending, sharply trigonous and roughened on the angles, reddish brown tinged at the base. Lowermost leaves reduced to nearly bladeless sheaths. Leaf blades 5–40 cm long, (3–)7–13 mm wide, light green. Leaf sheaths with the tip shallowly concave, the ligule longer than wide and V-shaped, the ventral side brownish yellow tinged, usually lacking dots, the dorsal side green or reddish tinged, smooth, the lowermost sheaths reddish brown, usually becoming dissected into a ladderlike network of fibers at maturity. Spikes 3–8 per stem, the lowermost bract longer than the inflorescence. Staminate spikes 1 or 2, 20–60 mm long, sometimes pistillate toward the tip, short- to long-stalked, often somewhat arched or drooping. Staminate scales 3–7 mm long, oblong-obovate and rounded at the tip to linear-lanceolate and long-tapered or awned at the tip, straw-colored to light brown with green midrib. Pistillate spikes 2–6, at least the lowermost strongly arched or drooping, 25–110 mm long, 8–12 mm wide. Pistillate scales 3–12 mm long, obovate to oblanceolate, mostly notched at the tip and with a long, flattened awn to 10 mm long with toothed margins, reddish brown to yellowish brown with green midrib. Perigynia 2.0–3.5 mm long, obovate in outline, inflated and more or less circular in cross-section, with a short beak 0.2–0.3 mm long, truncate at the tip, nerveless or with 1–3 faint nerves on each surface, green or straw-colored, lacking reddish brown dots. Styles more or less persistent and persisting at the tip of the fruit as a curved beak. Fruits 1.3–1.8 mm long, oblong-ovate in outline, usually with a shallow, horizontal notch toward the middle, beaked at the tip, brown. 2n=66. May–July.

Scattered nearly throughout Missouri, most commonly in the Ozark Division (eastern U.S. west to Minnesota and Texas; Canada). Bottomland prairies, moist depressions of upland prairies, margins of streams, spring branches, rivers, ponds, sinkhole ponds, and lakes, sloughs, marshes, and fens; sometimes emergent aquatics.

Carex crinita is sometimes divided into two or more varieties. Variety brevicrinis is said to differ from var. crinita in its pistillate scales with shorter awns, longer and more strongly obovate perigynia, and fruits with straight beaks. Bruederle and Fairbrothers (1986) presented isozyme data suggesting that populations of var. brevicrinis and var. crinita were sufficiently distinct genetically to be treated as varieties. However, their populational samples originated from Wisconsin and the eastern seaboard, and thus may not reflect the situation elsewhere in the species’ range. In general, Missouri populations exhibit too much morphological variation to allow recognition of varieties.