258.
Carex
tetanica
Schkuhr, Beschr. Riedgräs., Nachtr. 68, plates Ggg, fig. 100, Oooo, fig. 207. 1806.
Plants colonial, long-rhizomatous, vegetative shoots widely scattered and inconspicuous from deep rhizomes. Culms 15—65 cm, smooth to scabrous distally. Leaves proximal sheaths with blades, brownish or purple—tinged, slender, 1.3—3.2 mm diam.; ligules (0.6—)1—6 mm, (0.8—)1—2 times longer than wide; leaf blades green, flat, 3—20 cm × 1.5—5 mm, herbaceous. Inflorescences 4—32 cm, 0.9—1.6 times as long as proximal bract; proximal bracts 4—22 cm, sheaths 0.5—5 cm, blades 3.5—17 cm; pistillate spikes ovoid to linear-cylindric, 6—40 × 3—5.8 mm; lateral spikes erect or ascending on stiff peduncles. Pistillate scales brown or purple tinged, apex awned or obtuse. Perigynia ascending to spreading, green, 2.5—4 × 1—2.2 mm, minutely papillose; beak minute, bent. Achenes light to dark brown, 1.8—3 × 1.2—1.6(—1.8) mm.
Fruiting late spring—early summer. Calcareous fens, bogs, and swales; 20—1000 m; Man., Ont., Sask.; Conn., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Pa., S.Dak., Va., W.Va., Wis.
See notes under 257. Carex meadii.
