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Published In: Kongl. Vetenskaps Academiens Nya Handlingar 24(2): 154. 1803. (Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Nya Handl.) Name publication detailView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/1/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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31. Carex grisea Wahlenb.

Pl. 36 a–d; Map 144

C. amphibola Steud. var. turgida Fernald

Plants mostly without noticeable rhizomes, forming dense tufts or rarely loose clumps, green to light green or yellowish green. Flowering stems 15–80 cm long, erect to spreading, brown or sometimes dark reddish purple at the base. Leaf blades 1–50 cm long, 3–9 mm wide, flat. Leaf sheaths glabrous, the tip truncate or shallowly concave, the lowermost, nearly bladeless sheaths brown or sometimes dark reddish purple. Spikes 3–6 per stem, the bracts of the uppermost pistillate spikes longer than the inflorescence. Staminate spike 7–35 mm long, sessile or short-stalked, the stalk smooth. Staminate scales 3–5 mm long, narrowly oblong to narrowly ovate, white to light brown with green midrib, occasionally with sparse, red spots. Pistillate spikes 5–30 mm long, 4.5–9.0 mm wide, the uppermost sessile or short-stalked, the lowermost short- to long-stalked, the stalks smooth, ascending, with 3–27 strongly overlapping perigynia, these several-ranked, in a spiral pattern around the axis. Pistillate scales 2.0–5.5 mm long, the lowermost ones with the bodies as long as or longer than the associated perigynia, ovate to broadly ovate, the tip pointed and with a short to long, rough-margined awn, white with green midrib, sometimes with reddish purple spots or streaks. Perigynia 3.9–4.5 mm long, 1.8–2.3 mm wide, ascending, elliptic to obovate in outline, the tip pointed, without a beak, tapered to a broad, more or less rounded base, circular in cross-section or nearly so. Fruits 3.0–3.7 mm long, the main body (excluding beak and stalklike base) 2.2–3.0 mm long, the beak 0.3–0.6 mm long, straight. 2n=52, 56. April–July.

Common throughout Missouri (northeastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Texas). Mesic upland forests, often on rich slopes of ravines or along bases of bluffs, bottomland forests, and stream margins; less commonly in upland prairies, fens, and old fields, as well as along roadsides.

This is the commonest and most widespread member of the C. amphibola complex in Missouri. In the Ozarks, it is the characteristic member of the complex. Most plants treated by Steyermark (1963) as C. amphibola var. globosa (L.H. Bailey) L.H. Bailey belong here, but the type of that name is a different species, C. bulbostylis Mack., which occurs to the south of Missouri. Likewise, most specimens cited by Steyermark (1963) as C. amphibola Steud. var. rigida (L.H. Bailey) Fernald are C. grisea, but the type of this taxon is actually C. planispicata (see treatment below).

 


 

 
 
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