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).