88.
Carex
exilis
Dewey, Amer. J. Sci. Arts. 14: 351, plate Q, figs. 53, 54. 1828.
Carex maigre
Culms 12—80 cm. Leaves 2—6 per culm; sheaths tight, inner band hyaline, 3.5—21 cm, apex concave, glabrous; ligules rounded, 0.8—1.8 × 0.6—1.6 mm; blades involute, 4—70 cm × 0.4—1.5 mm, widest leaf 0.8—1.5 mm wide. Inflorescences 0.6—4 cm; spike 1 (occasionally 1—3 smaller accessory spikes), gynecandrous with staminate portion of spike 1—3 mm wide, to 50-flowered and pistillate portion of spike 5—9.5 mm wide, to 27-flowered or plants sometimes unisexual with staminate and pistillate spikes on different plants. Pistillate scales ovate, 1.8—3.3 × 1.3—2.2 mm, apex acute. Staminate scales lanceolate to ovate, 1.7—5.5 × 1—2.2 mm, apex acute. Anthers (2—)2.2—3.6 mm. Perigynia spreading to reflexed, castaneous to dark brown, 15-veined abaxially, faintly 7-veined adaxially, lanceolate-ovate to broadly ovate, 2.6—4.7 × 1.25—2.3 mm, 1.3—2.65 times as long as wide; beak 0.5—1.7 mm, 0.2—0.65 length of body, serrulate, teeth blunt, to 0.35 mm, soft. Achenes ovate, 1.4—2.2 × 1.2—1.7 mm.
Fruiting late spring—early summer. Fens, bogs; 0—500 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Del., Maine, Md., Mass, Mich., Minn., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., Vt., Wis.
