Carex radiata Small

Small Cespitose; stems 2–8 dm, erect, slender, the fertile ones 0.8–1.5 mm thick at base; lvs elongate, the widest ones 1.3–1.9 mm wide; spikes 4–7, androgynous, sessile, closely aggregated or the lower often distinctly separate; bracts setaceous, the lowest often surpassing the infl; pistillate scales persistent, shorter than the perigynia, rounded to acute, seldom short-awned; perigynia 3–20, light green, widely spreading or reflexed at maturity, planoconvex, lance-ovate, 2.6–3.8 mm, two-fifths as wide, spongy and somewhat swollen at the subtruncate or broadly rounded base, nerveless, or obscurely nerved near the base, gradually tapering or slightly acuminate into a serrulate, very shortly bidentate beak scarcely a third as long as the body; achene lenticular, ovate to obovate, 1.5–2 mm, occupying the upper half of the body of the perigynium, its base 0.5–0.9 mm above the base of the perigynium; stigmas very slender, straight to slightly twisted, only 0.03–0.06 mm wide; 2n=58. Moist woods and edges of ponds, requiring more moisture than the next 2 spp.; N.S. and s. Que. to Man. and N.D., s. to N.C., Ala., and Mo. (C. rosea, misapplied) The 2 following spp. are closely allied to C. radiata. The characters are confluent, but the populations apparently not.