Carex siccata Dewey

Stems 1.5–4(–6) dm, scattered on tough brown rhizomes, distinctly aphyllopodic; lvs ± flat, (1–)1.5–3 mm wide, generally all on the lower fourth of the stem; sheaths thin-hyaline ventrally; spikes mostly 4–12, sessile, ca 1 cm or less, inconspicuously bracteate, aggregated into a cylindric or clavate-cylindric infl 1.5–3.5 cm, mostly androgynous, but the lower often largely or wholly staminate, and the uppermost one sometimes wholly pistillate and closely subtended by one or more very short staminate spikes so as to appear gynaecandrous; perigynia generally conspicuously surpassing the scales, lance-ovate to ± elliptic, planoconvex, sharp-edged proximally, becoming thin-margined distally, evidently about 10-nerved dorsally, evidently to obscurely few-nerved ventrally, 4.5–6.2 mm including the prominent beak that is more than half as long as the body; achene lenticular; 2n=70. Dry, sterile or sandy soil, in open places in light shade; Me. to Mack., s. to N.J., O., Ill., Minn., and Ariz. (C. foenea, misapplied)