Plants without conspicuous rhizomes. Culms 30-100 cm, 3-6 mm wide basally, 0.7-1.1 mm wide distally. Leaves: proximal sheaths loose, longitudinally green-and-white-striped, green-and-white-mottled, with prominent cross veins on backs, fronts hyaline and transversely rugose; ligules 3-8 mm, as long as wide; widest leaf blades 5-10 mm wide. Inflorescences with 6-15 spikes, 3-15 cm × 8-12 mm, occasionally compound and then somewhat larger; proximal internodes usually 20+ mm, more than 2 times as long as proximal spikes; proximal bracts to 2 cm; spikes with up to 50 ascending to spreading perigynia. Pistillate scales hyaline with green midvein, ovate to subcircular, 1.8-2.5 × 1.1-1.8 mm, body 1/2 length of perigynium, apex obtuse to acuminate or short-awned. Anthers 0.7-1.3 mm. Perigynia pale green, with wing 0.1-0.2 mm wide distally, veinless or weakly veined abaxially, 3.3-4.3 × 1.5-2.5 mm, margins serrulate distally; beak 0.8-1.2 mm, apical teeth 0.2-0.4 mm. Achenes suborbiculate, 1.7-2.2 × 1.5-1.8 mm. 2n = 46, 48.

Fruiting late spring-early summer. Dry to moist deciduous and mixed forests, forest edges, on neutral or basic soils; 50-300 m; Ont., Que.; Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Nebr., N.H., N.J., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., S.Dak., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Very common in dry woods (usually sugar maple, beech or white oak), thickets, and along roadsides. One of the most abundant sedges in the state.

Cespitose; stems 4-8 dm, usually rough above, equaling or surpassing the lvs; main lvs 4-10 mm wide, the sheath loose, ventrally pale and often thin, dorsally septate-nodulose and white with green veins or mottled; spikes androgynous, subglobose or ovoid; bracts none or setaceous, shorter than the heads; scales ovate, with broad hyaline margins, acute to cuspidate, barely if at all reaching the base of the beak of the subtended perigynium; perigynia planoconvex, green, ovate or lance-ovate, 3-4.5 mm, a third to two-thirds as wide, acuminate into a rough-margined beak a third to half as long as the body; achene lenticular, broadly ovate, the style-base very slightly thickened; 2n=46, 48. Dry woods and thickets, especially in calcareous regions; N.B. and Que. to Va., w. to Minn., S.D., and Okla. Three vars.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.