80. Carex joori L.H. Bailey

Pl. 52 a–d; Map 196

Plants monoecious, with creeping rhizomes, forming dense clumps or colonies. Vegetative stems well developed, leafy. Flowering stems 40–130 cm long, erect, strongly trigonous, glabrous, roughened on the angles, reddish brown at the base. Leaves basal and on the lower half of the stems, mostly shorter than the stems, glabrous, all with well-developed blades. Leaf blades 10–50 cm long, 4–10 mm wide, the margins and midrib minutely roughened or toothed, flat with somewhat inrolled margins toward the tip, more or less folded toward the base, glaucous. Leaf sheaths with the tip truncate or nearly so, usually somewhat glaucous, the ligule wider than long and U-shaped, the ventral side usually thin, papery, and yellowish white, the lowermost sheath bases reddish brown to nearly black. Spikes 4–6 per stem, the lowermost bracts leaflike, shorter than to longer than the inflorescence, lacking a sheath or nearly so, the uppermost bract short and hairlike. Terminal spike staminate, 15–50 mm long, linear, the stalk long and roughened, the staminate scales 4–7 mm long, narrowly elliptic-obovate, the tip tapered to a short, roughened awn, white with green midrib, often somewhat reddish brown tinged. Lateral spikes 3–5, pistillate or the uppermost spike staminate toward the tip, loosely spaced near the tip of the axis, the uppermost sessile or nearly so, the lowermost short- to long-stalked, ascending, 15–60 mm long, 7–10 mm wide, narrowly oblong in outline, with numerous densely spaced, spreading perigynia, the pistillate scales 3–6 mm long, oblong-elliptic to narrowly obovate, bluntly pointed at the tip, mostly with a long, roughened awn, white with green midrib, often somewhat reddish brown tinged. Perigynia 3.5–5.0 mm long, somewhat inflated and more or less circular in cross-section, obovate in outline, tapered abruptly to a beak at the tip, tapered at the base, the surface with several prominent, longitudinal ribs, glabrous, dull green and often somewhat glaucous, the beak 0.9–1.1 mm long, not flattened, straight or somewhat outwardly curved, truncate at the tip. Styles withering during fruit development, jointed to the main body of the fruit, which is short-beaked at maturity. Stigmas 3. Fruits 2.2–2.8 mm long, obovate in outline, sharply trigonous in cross-section with concave sides and thickened angles, yellow to light brown. August–October.

Known only from historical collections from Dunklin County (southeastern U.S. west to Texas, mostly on the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains). Bottomland forests, swamps.