Carex tenera Dewey var. suberecta Olney, Caric. Bor.-Amer., 3. 1871

Plants cespitose; rhizomes appearing elongate in old clumps. Culms uniformly slender, 40–80 cm; vegetative culms few, inconspicuous, usually fewer than 15 leaves, not strikingly 3-ranked. Leaves: sheaths adaxially conspicuously green-veined nearly to collar, narrow hyaline band or sharp Y-shaped region at collar, adaxially firm, summits U-shaped; distal ligules 1.6–3.3 mm; blades 2–5 per fertile culm, 12–18 cm × 1.5–2.5 mm. Inflorescences stiffly erect, dense to slightly open, brown, 1.5–3(–3.5) cm × 6–14 mm; proximal internode 2–12 mm; 2d internode 2–7 mm; proximal bracts scalelike, often with bristletips shorter than or equaling inflorescences. Spikes 2–5, distant, distinct, ovoid, 7–12 × 4–7 mm, base rounded or short-acute, apex acute. Pistillate scales reddish brown, 1-veined midstripe sometimes pale, broadly lanceolate, 2.7–3.6 mm, shorter and narrower than perigynia, apex firm, acute to acuminate. Perigynia 15–80 in larger spikes, appressed, usually golden brown, conspicuously 6–9-veined abaxially, inconspicuously veined adaxially, diamond shaped, flat except over achene, 4–5 × 2–2.8 mm, 0.4–0.5 mm thick, base subacute or acute, margin flat, including wing 0.6–0.9 mm wide, smooth; beak apprressed, golden brown at tip, flat, 0.7–1.6(–1.8) mm, 2/5+ length of body, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture with hyaline, golden brown margin, distance from beak tip to achene 2–3 mm. Achenes elliptic to ovate, 1.5–1.7 × 0.8–1.1 mm, 0.3–0.4 mm thick. 2n = 72.

Fruiting early summer. Calcareous fens and seeps, shores, swales; 100–600 m; Ont.; Ark., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Mich., Minn., Mo., Ohio, Tex., Va., Wis., W.Va.