27. Carex conoidea Schkuhr ex Willd.

Pl. 37 f–i; Map 140

Plants mostly without noticeable rhizomes, forming dense tufts or sometimes looser clumps, green. Flowering stems 10–70 cm long, erect or ascending, brown at the base. Leaf blades 1–50 cm long, 1.5–4.0 mm wide, flat. Leaf sheaths glabrous, the tip truncate or shallowly concave, the lowermost, nearly bladeless sheaths brown. Spikes (2–)3–6 per stem, the bracts of the uppermost pistillate spikes about as long as or somewhat longer than the inflorescence. Staminate spike 5–30 mm long, short- to mostly long-stalked, the stalk roughened. Staminate scales 2.5–4.5 mm long, narrowly oblong to narrowly ovate, white to light brown with green midrib, often reddish tinged. Pistillate spikes 5–30 mm long, 4–9 mm wide, the uppermost sessile or short-stalked, the lowermost short- to more commonly long-stalked, the stalks roughened, ascending, with 5–40 strongly overlapping perigynia, these several-ranked, in a spiral pattern around the axis. Pistillate scales 2.5–4.7 mm long, the lowermost ones with the bodies shorter than to about as long as the associated perigynia, ovate to broadly ovate, the tip pointed and with a short to long, rough-margined awn, white with green midrib, sometimes reddish tinged. Perigynia 2.5–3.8 mm long, 1.2–1.7 mm wide, 1.7–2.5 times as long as wide, loosely ascending, oblong-ovate to oblong-obovate in outline, the tip bluntly pointed, without a beak, slightly tapered to a broad, more or less rounded base, circular in cross-section or nearly so. Fruits 1.8–2.6 mm long, the main body (excluding beak and stalklike base) 1.4–1.8 mm long, the beak 0.2–0.5 mm long, straight. 2n=66, 68. May–June.

Uncommon, known from only three sites in southwestern and central Missouri (northeastern U.S. west to Minnesota and Missouri, disjunct and possibly introduced in Arizona; Canada). Upland prairies, usually in mesic depressions.

This species is often confused with C. meadii (section Paniceae), which can have a very similar growth form when it occurs on prairies and whose perigynia have a similar shape. It differs from C. conoidea in its long-creeping rhizomes, bluntly trigonous stems, leaf sheaths with concave tips, and perigynia with raised nerves, and it also tends to have somewhat larger perigynia and pistillate scales with blunter tips and shorter, smooth-margined awns. In Missouri, C. conoidea often produces few flowering stems and is easily overlooked in the field. It may be more widespread on high-quality upland prairies than the few presently available specimens would suggest.