42.
Carex
gravida
L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Bot. Club. 1: 5. 1889.
Carex lunelliana Mackenzie
Plants without conspicuous rhizomes. Culms (20—)30—100 cm, 2.5—8 mm wide basally, 0.7—1.6 mm wide distally. Leaves: sheaths usually loose, proximally green-and-white-striped, not white spotted, with conspicuous transverse veins on back, fronts hyaline, sometimes transversely rugose and red dotted, thin, white or hyaline and fragile at mouth; ligules 2—7 mm, shorter to longer than wide; widest leaf blades (3—)4—8 mm wide. Inflorescences with 5—15 spikes, 1—5 cm × 8—15 mm, occasionally compound, then somewhat larger; proximal bracts to 3 cm; spikes with 5—15 ascending to spreading perigynia; proximal internodes shorter than to 1.5 times as long as proximal spikes. Pistillate scales hyaline or brown with green, 1—3-veined center, ovate, 2.6—4.4 × 1.3—2.4 mm, body shorter to slightly longer than perigynium, apex acuminate to short-awned. Anthers 1.5—3 mm. Perigynia pale green to pale brown, veinless or 3—7(—12)-veined abaxially, rarely veined adaxially, 3.5—5.5 × 2—3 mm, body somewhat spongy, base thickened, margins serrulate distally; beak 0.6—1.6 mm, apical teeth 0.3—1 mm. Achenes circular to elliptic- circular, 1.8—2.1 × 1.6—2 mm.
Fruiting late spring. Prairies, ditches, swales, open forests, usually on calcareous soils; 100—1400 m; Man., Ont., Sask.; Ark., Colo., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.Mex., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Va., Wis., Wyo.
Carex gravida is introduced in North Carolina.
