Carex de Nouvelle-Angleterre

Plants loosely cespitose; rhizomes ascending to erect, reddish to reddish brown, 0–10(–20) mm, slender. Culms 5–40 cm, weakly scabrous distally; bases not fibrous. Leaf blades green, equaling or exceeding culms, 0.7–1.5 mm wide, herbaceous, smooth to papillose abaxially, weakly scabrous adaxially. Inflorescences with both staminate and proximal spikes; peduncles of staminate spikes 1.9–5.9 mm; proximal nonbasal bracts leaflike, equaling or shorter than inflorescences. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 2–3 (basal spikes 0); cauline spikes remote, nonoverlapping, proximal 2 usually separated by more than 7 mm, with 3–10 perigynia; staminate spikes 4–15 × 0.7–1.3 mm. Scales: pistillate scales pale brown to pale reddish brown, ovate, 2–2.5 × 1–1.4 mm, shorter than to equaling perigynia, apex cuspidate to acuminate; staminate scales oblong to oblanceolate, 3.1–4.6 × 0.7–1.3 mm, apex long-acuminate to obtuse. Anthers 1.5–2.1 mm. Perigynia pale green, veinless, ellipsoid, 2.2–2.6 × 0.8–1 mm, longer than wide; beak 0.3–0.7 mm, straight, pale green, apical teeth 0.2–0.3 mm. Stigmas 3. Achenes dark brown, obovoid to ellipsoid, acutely trigonous in cross section, 1.4–1.7 × 0.7–0.9 mm.

Fruiting early Jun–early Jul. Moist to mesic sites, in shade or partial shade under mixed deciduous forests, occasionally under spruce-hemlock canopies; 100–1000 m; St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., Que.; Conn., Maine, Mass., Mich., N.H., N.Y., Pa., S.C., Vt., W.Va., Wis.

Recently discovered plants on the coastal plain in South Carolina resemble Carex novae-angliae in habit and perigynium features and have well-developed basal spikes. They require further study to determine their relationships with other members of the section.