Carex houblon

Plants loosely cespitose or not, short-rhizomatous. Culms solitary or not, erect, 20–100(–130) cm. Leaves 4–8; basal sheaths reddish to brownish; sheath of distal leaf (1.3–)1.7–10(–25) cm; ligules triangular, 3.5–18 mm; blades 15–64 cm × 4–15 mm. Inflorescences 4–40 cm; peduncles of proximal spikes 0.5–20 cm, basal 2 peduncles 1–20 cm apart of terminal spike 0.5–6(–7) cm, shorter than or exceeding distal pistillate spike by 2 cm or less; bracts leafy, sheaths 0.5–15 cm, blades 13–55 cm × 3–11 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes (1–)2–5, distal spikes usually ± crowded, ascending, densely (4–)8–80-flowered, ovoid to cylindric, 1.5–6.5 × 1.3–3 cm; terminal staminate spikes 1(–2), 1.5–8.5 cm × 1–5 mm. Pistillate scales 1–7-veined, lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 6–15 × 1–2.7 mm, apex acute to awned, awns rough, to 6 mm. Anthers 3, 3–5.5 mm. Perigynia ascending, strongly 13–22-veined, ± stipitate, lance-ovoid, 11–19 × 3–6 mm, shiny, glabrous; beak conic, 6–10 mm. Achenes stipitate, rhomboid, flat to concave faces, angles smoothly thickened, not pointed or nobbed, 3–4(–4.5) × 1.7–2.6(–2.8) mm; style same texture as achene.

Fruiting late spring–summer. Wet, deciduous or mixed swamp forests, forest openings, wet meadows; 0–700 m; N.B., N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Ark., Conn., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Occasional specimens have been seen that appear to be sterile hybrids of Carex lupulina with C. retrorsa or C. lurida.