125. Carex crus-corvi Shuttlew. ex Kunze
Pl. 65 a–e; Map 241
Flowering stems 30–100
cm long, sharply trigonous and often narrowly winged, soft and easily crushed,
often flattening upon drying. Leaf blades 4–70 cm long, 5–10 mm wide, grayish
green to green, sometimes glaucous. Leaf sheaths truncate to shallowly concave
at the tip, the dorsal side white with green veins or mottled green and white,
also with scattered, short, dark green or brown cross-lines (these actually
darkened cross-walls of the cells, clearly visible with magnification), the
ventral side thin, papery, white to tan with scattered red dots, only rarely
cross-wrinkled, often breaking up at maturity, the ligule wider than long and
U-shaped. Inflorescences compound with relatively elongate basal branches, with
numerous spikes. Pistillate scales 3–4 mm long, white to tan with a green or
straw-colored midrib. Perigynia 6–8 mm long, 1.0–2.2 mm wide, narrowly
triangular in outline, green, the tip long-tapered to a beak 2–3 times as long
as the main body, the base truncate, abruptly swollen with spongy tissue into a
yellow to brown, disklike structure, the ventral surface nerveless or more
commonly with 5–7 faint nerves, the dorsal surface with 10–12 strong nerves.
Fruits 1.8–2.5 mm long. 2n=52. May–July.
Widely scattered in the
state, mostly in the floodplains of big rivers and their tributaries,
apparently absent from northwestern Missouri
and most of the Ozark Division (Michigan to Georgia west to Wisconsin
and Texas; disjunct farther east; Canada).
Swamps, sloughs, bottomland forests, bottomland prairies, and banks of rivers
and streams; also ditches; sometimes emergent aquatics.
The long perigynium
beaks give this species a bristly appearance. The coarse stems; large, compound
inflorescences with elongate basal branches; and long perigynia make it
relatively easy to recognize.