121. Carex lurida Wahlenb.

Pl. 64 e–i; Map 237

Plants with poorly developed, short rhizomes, forming dense clumps. Flowering stems 15–100 cm long, bluntly trigonous, tinged reddish purple at the base. Lowermost leaves reduced to nearly bladeless sheaths. Leaf blades 10–50 cm long, 4–9 mm wide, dull green to yellowish green. Leaf sheaths concave or truncate at the tip, the ligule longer than wide and V-shaped. Terminal spike 10–80 mm long, staminate, the staminate scales 4.5–13.5 mm long, oblanceolate, hairy along the margins, the tip tapered abruptly to a noticeable awn with roughened or toothed margins, yellowish brown with a lighter midrib and margins. Lateral spikes 1–4, 10–70 mm long, 14–22 mm wide, all pistillate, narrowly oblong to nearly circular in outline , more or less rounded at both ends, the lowermost spikes with short to long stalks, erect or ascending, rarely nodding or drooping, the lowermost bract usually lacking a sheath or nearly so. Pistillate scales 3.5–12.0 mm long, the short, main body oblong, the tip tapered abruptly to a long awn 1–3 times as long as the body with roughened or toothed margins, yellowish brown with a green or tan midrib and lighter margins. Perigynia 6–10 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, ascending to spreading at maturity, ovate in outline, tapered gradually to a beak with erect to somewhat spreading teeth 0.4–1.0 mm long, inflated and circular or nearly so in cross-section, the surface papery, with 7–12 nerves, olive green to straw-colored. Styles contorted (abruptly bent, curved, or looped) in the lower half. Fruits with the main body 1.8–2.5 mm long, elliptic-obovate in outline, yellowish brown, minutely roughened. 2n=64, 66. May–September.

Common south of the Missouri River, and scattered in northeastern Missouri; apparently absent from most of the Glaciated Plains Division (eastern U.S. west to Minnesota and Texas; Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela). Bottomland prairies, moist depressions of upland prairies, banks of streams, rivers, and spring branches, margins of ponds and sinkhole ponds, marshes, fens, and wet, open places.