2. Scleria oligantha Michx. (few-flowered nut
grass)
Pl. 87 h, i; Map 327
Plants perennial with knotty rhizomes.
Aerial stems usually appearing clustered, 30–80 cm long, erect to ascending,
glabrous, sometimes somewhat glaucous, less commonly sparsely hairy. Leaf
sheaths often narrowly winged or roughened along the angles, glabrous or
sparsely hairy, green or tinged with pale purple, the convex tip opposite the
leaf blade 2–3 mm long, broadly rounded, hairy. Leaf blades 1–25 cm long, 2–6
mm wide, glabrous except at the base where sparsely hairy along the margins and
main veins, the margins and main veins frequently roughened. Inflorescences few
to several clusters of spikelets, these arranged in 1–3(–5) headlike masses.
Bracts erect to ascending, 0.8–10 cm long. Spikelets 4–5 mm long, the scales
green to purplish brown. Fruits with the main body 2.5–4.0 mm long at maturity,
ovate in outline, the tip usually with a minute point, the surface smooth,
shiny, white, the basal disk bluntly 3-angled, with a narrow, smooth basal rim
and 8–9 small, rounded tubercles, these having a densely and finely pebbled or
granular texture. May–July.
Scattered in the southern portion of the
Ozarks (southeastern U.S. west to Texas; Mexico, Central America, Caribbean Islands). Glades, savannas, and rocky, dry upland forests, on chert and dolomite
substrates.