Carex lacustris Willd.

Stems stout, 5–15 dm, arising singly or few together from long, stout, scaly rhizomes, aphyllopodic, lateral, not surrounded by old lf-bases, the lower sheaths strongly reddened, soon breaking and becoming very fibrillose; main lvs 8–15 mm wide, glabrous except for the scabrous margins, usually conspicuously cross-septate; ligule much longer than wide; staminate spikes 2–4, distal, the lateral ones sessile; pistillate spikes 2–4, usually separate, cylindric, 3–10 × 1–1.5 cm, erect, densely fld, sessile or short-peduncled; bracts lf-like and scarcely or not at all sheathing, some or all surpassing the infl; body of the pistillate scales much shorter than the perigynia, ovate to oblong, the sides hyaline or pale brown, the green midrib often prolonged into an awn to 3 mm; perigynia rather slenderly ovoid or ellipsoid-ovoid, glabrous, with ± evidently raised nerves, 4.7–7.3 (avg 6) mm, gradually narrowed into the beak, this with divergent triangular teeth 0.4–1 mm; achene trigonous, continuous with the persistent, slender, abruptly bent or flexuous style; 2n=74. Swamps and marshes; Que. to Va., w. to Sask. and Nebr.

Can be grown by cuttings, divisions or seedlings.