Tawny sedge, carex de Host

Carex fulvescens Mackenzie; C. hornschuchiana Hoppe; C. hostiana var. laurentiana (Fernald & Wiegand) Fernald & Wiegand

Plants not cespitose. Culms straight, 25–60 cm. Leaves of flowering stems shorter than stem, to 13.5 cm × 1.5–3.1(–4.3) mm. Inflorescences: peduncles of staminate spikes 5–70 mm; bracts 90 × 0.7–2.2 mm; inner band of sheaths with brown, convex projection to 3.2 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 1–3(–4), distant, erect or ascending, usually conspicuously pedunculate, ovoid to short-cylindric, proximal 10–20 × 5–9.5 mm; terminal staminate spikes 10–33 × 1.6–4.2 mm. Scales: pistillate scales dark brown, 2.1–3.9 × 1.4–2.4 mm, margins conspicuously white-hyaline; staminate scales with broad, white, hyaline margins. Anthers 2–3.6 mm. Perigynia ascending, yellowish, 3.1–5.5 × 1.2–2.1 mm, apex gradually narrowed into straight, serrulate beak; beak 0.7–1.6 mm. Achenes 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm.

Fruiting Jul–Aug. Moist to wet, open fens and meadows, on lime-rich soils; 0–500 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Nfld. and Labr., Que.; Mass.; Europe.

Carex hostiana was last collected in Massachusetts prior to 1836.

SELECTED REFERENCE

Crins, W. J. and P. W. Ball. 1987. Variation in Carex hostiana (Cyperaceae). Rhodora 89: 247–259.