33. Carex oligocarpa Schkuhr ex Willd.

Pl. 38 a–e; Map 146

Plants without noticeable rhizomes, forming dense tufts, green to dark green. Flowering stems 15–80 cm long, ascending to spreading, dark reddish purple at the base. Leaf blades 1–35 cm long, 2–4 mm wide, flat. Leaf sheaths glabrous, the tip extended past the insertion point of the leaf blade, the lowermost, nearly bladeless sheaths dark reddish purple. Spikes 3–5 per stem, the bracts of the uppermost pistillate spikes longer than the inflorescence. Staminate spike 10–30 mm long, short- to long-stalked, the stalk roughened. Staminate scales 4–6 mm long, narrowly oblong, white with green midrib, sometimes tinged reddish brown. Pistillate spikes 5–20 mm long, 4–7 mm wide, short- to long-stalked, the stalks smooth, ascending, with 1–12 loosely spaced to slightly overlapping perigynia in 2 ranks on opposite sides of the axis. Pistillate scales 3–6 mm long, the lowermost ones with the body shorter than the associated perigynia, ovate, the tip pointed and with a long, rough-margined awn, white with green midrib. Perigynia 3.5–5.5 mm long, less than twice as long as the main body of the fruit, ascending, elliptic in outline, tapered to the beak at the tip, tapered to a short, stalklike base, trigonous in cross-section. Fruits 2.2–3.2 mm long, the beak 0.1–0.5 mm long, straight. 2n=52, 56 (2n=56 in Missouri). April–July.

Scattered nearly throughout Missouri, but apparently absent from the Mississippi Lowlands Division (eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Minnesota and Oklahoma). Mesic upland forests, mostly on rich, north-facing slopes, frequently on calcareous substrates; occasionally on shaded road cuts.