The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 180

[++][++] Flower with one or more inner scales.

10. Fuirena. Scales of the spikelet awned below the apex. Flower surrounded by 3 stalked petal-like scales alternating with 3 bristles.

11. Hemicarpha. Flower with a single very minute hyaline scale next the axis of the spikelet; bristles none.

12. Lipocarpha. Flower enclosed by 2 inner scales, one next the axis, the other in front of the achene; bristles none.

Tribe II. RHYNCHOSPOREae. Spikelets mostly 1--2-flowered, with 2--many of the lower scales empty.

13. Rhynchospora. Spikelets terete or flattish; scales convex, either loosely enwrapping or regularly imbricated. Achene crowned with a persistent tubercle or beak, and commonly surrounded by bristles.

14. Cladium. Spikelets terete, few-flowered, the scales, etc., as in the preceding. Achene dest.i.tute of tubercle. No bristles.

II. Flowers unis.e.xual.

Tribe III. SCLERIEae. Flowers moncious; the staminate and pistillate in the same or in different cl.u.s.tered spikes. Achene naked, bony or crustaceous, supported on a hardened disk.

15. Sclerlia. Spikes few-flowered; lower scales empty. No bristles or inner scales.

Tribe IV. CARICEae. Flowers moncious in the same (androgynous) or in separate spikes or sometimes dicious. Achene enclosed in a sac (_perigynium_).

16. Carex. Hypogynous bristle short and enclosed in the perigynium or none.

1. CYPeRUS, Tourn. GALINGALE. (Pl. 1.)

Spikelets many--few-flowered, mostly flat, variously arranged, mostly in cl.u.s.ters or heads, which are commonly disposed in a simple or compound terminal umbel. Scales 2-ranked, conduplicate and keeled (their decurrent base below often forming margins or wings to the hollow of the joint of the axis next below), deciduous when old. Stamens 1--3. No bristles or inner scales. Style 2--3-cleft, deciduous. Achene lenticular or triangular, naked at the apex.--Culms mostly triangular, simple, leafy at base, and with one or more leaves at the summit, forming an involucre to the umbel or head. Peduncles or rays unequal, sheathed at base. All flowering in late summer or autumn. (??pe????, the ancient name.)

-- 1. PYCReUS. _Achene lenticular, the edge turned to the rhachis; spikelet flattened, many flowered; rhachis narrow, not winged. Annuals._

[*] _Umbel simple or capitate, rarely slightly compound._

1. C. flavescens, L. Culms 4--10' high, spikelets 5--8" long; involucre 3-leaved, very unequal; spikelets becoming linear, obtuse, cl.u.s.tered on the 2--4 very short rays (peduncles); _scales obtuse, straw-yellow; stamens 3; achene shining, orbicular_, its superficial cells oblong.--Low grounds, N. Eng. to Mich., Ill., and southward. (Eu., etc.)

2. C. diandrus, Torr. (Pl. 1, fig. 1--4.) Spikelets lance-oblong (3--9"), scattered or cl.u.s.tered on the 2--5 very short or unequal rays; _scales rather obtuse, purple-brown_ on the margins or nearly all over; _stamens 2, or sometimes 3; achene dull, oblong-obovate_; otherwise much like the last.--Low grounds, common from the Atlantic to Minn., Ark., and N. Mex.--Var. CASTaNEUS, Torr. Scales more firm and browner; with the type.

3. C. Nuttallii, Torr. Culms 4--12' high; spikelets lance-linear, acute and very flat (--1' long), crowded on the few usually very short (or some of them distinct) rays; _scales oblong, yellowish-brown_, rather loose; _stamens 2; achene oblong-obovate, very blunt, dull_.--Mostly in salt or brackish marshes, along the coast from Ma.s.s. to the Gulf.

4. C. polystachyus, Rottb., var. leptostachyus, Boeckl. Culms very slender, 6--15' high; leaves and elongated involucre very narrow; spikelets few to many on the 4--8 rays, linear, acute, 2--9" long; _scales thin, ovate, acute, closely imbricated, pale brown_; stamens 2; _achene linear-oblong or clavate, short-pointed, grayish and minutely pitted_. (C. microdontus, _Torr._)--Margins of ponds and streams, Va. to Fla. and Tex.

[*][*] _Umbel compound._

5. C. flavicomus, Vahl. Culm stout (1--3 high); leaves of the involucre 3--5, very long; spikelets linear (4--9" long), spiked and crowded on the whole length of the branches of the several-rayed umbel, spreading; _scales oval, very obtuse, yellowish and brownish, broadly scarious- (whitish-) margined; stamens 3; achene obovate, mucronate_, blackish.--Low grounds, Va. to Fla.

-- 2. CYPERUS proper. _Achene triangular; spikelets usually many-flowered, more or less flattened, with carinate scales, the rhachis marginless or nearly so (winged in n. 12)._

[*] _Stamen 1; spikelets short and small (1--5" long) in globular heads, ovate or linear-oblong, many-flowered; achene oblong-obovate to linear._

[+] _Low annuals; involucre 2--3-leaved; heads few; scales pointed._

6. C. aristatus, Rottb. Dwarf (1--5' high); _spikelets chestnut-brown, oblong becoming linear_, 7--13-flowered, in 1--5 ovate heads (sessile and cl.u.s.tered, or short-peduncled); _scales nerved, tapering to a long recurved point_; achene oblong-obovate, obtuse. (C. inflexus, _Muhl._)--Sandy wet sh.o.r.es; common. Sweet-scented in drying.

7. C. ac.u.minatus, Torr. Slender (3--12' high); _spikelets ovate, becoming oblong_, 16--30-flowered, _pale; scales obscurely 3-nerved, short-tipped_; achene oblong, pointed at both ends.--Low ground, Ill.

and southwestward.

[+][+] _Tall perennial (1--4 high); heads many, greenish; scales pointless._

8. C. calcaratus, Nees. Culm obtusely triangular; leaves and involucre very long, keeled; umbel compound, many-rayed; spikelets ovate (1"

long), in numerous small heads; achenes pale, linear, on a slender stipe; scales narrow, acutish, obscurely 3-nerved. (C. virens, _Gray_, in part; not _Michx._ C. Luzulae, var. umbellatus, _Britt._)--Wet places, Del. to Fla. and Tex.

[*][*] _Stamens 3 (2 in _C. fuscus_); spikelets cl.u.s.tered on the rays of a simple umbel (or in a single sessile head); scales mostly green or greenish and many-nerved, abruptly sharp-pointed; achene obovate, sharply triangular._

[+] _Low annuals._

9. C. Compressus, L. Culms 3--9' high, with a simple sessile or a few umbellate cl.u.s.ters of oblong to linear spikelets (15--30-flowered and 3--8" long) with crowded strongly keeled and very acute pale scales.--Sterile fields along the coast, Md. to Fla. and Tex.; also adventive near Philadelphia.

C. FuSCUS, L. Of similar habit; spikelets much smaller (2--4" long), the thin brown scales (greenish only on the keel) barely acutish and very faintly nerved.--Revere Beach, Ma.s.s. (_Young_); on ballast at Philadelphia. (Adv. from Eu.)

[+][+] _Perennial, propagating from hard cl.u.s.tered corms or bulb-like tubers._

10. C. Schweinitzii, Torr. _Culm rough on the angles (1--2 high)_; umbel 4--8-rayed, rays very unequal, erect; _spikelets loosely or somewhat remotely 6--12-flowered, with convex many-nerved scales_; joints narrowly winged.--Dry sandy sh.o.r.es and ridges, western N. Y. and Penn. to Minn. and Kan.

11. C. filiculmis, Vahl. Culm slender, wiry, often reclined (8--15'

high); _leaves linear_ (--2" wide) or filiform; _spikelets numerous and cl.u.s.tered in one sessile dense head, or in 1--7 additional looser heads on spreading rays_ of an irregular umbel; _joints of the axis naked; scales blunt_, greenish.--Dry sterile soil; common, especially southward.

12. C. Grayii, Torr. Culm thread-form, wiry (6--12' high); _leaves almost bristle-shaped_, channelled; _umbel simple, 4--6-rayed; spikes 5--10 in a loose head, spreading; joints of the axis winged; scales rather obtuse_, greenish-chestnut-color.--Barren sands, Plymouth, Ma.s.s., to N. J., near the coast.

-- 3. PAP?RUS. _Style 3-cleft; achene triangular; stamens 3; spikelets many-flowered, flattened, the carinate scales decurrent upon the rhachis as scarious wings; spikes in simple or compound umbels._

[*] _Wings of the rhachis soon separating to the base as a pair of free scales; annual._

13. C. erythrorhzos, Muhl. (Pl. 1, fig. 5--8.) Culm obtusely triangular (3'--3 high); umbel many-rayed; involucre 4--5-leaved, very long; involucels bristle-form; spikelets very numerous, crowded in oblong or cylindrical nearly sessile heads or spikes, spreading horizontally, linear, flattish (3--6" long), bright chestnut-colored; scales lanceolate, mucronulate.--Alluvial banks, L. I. to Penn., Mich., Minn., and southward; also adventive in N. Eng.

[*][*] _Wings of the rhachis persistently attached; perennial by slender running rootstocks._

[+] _Achene round-obovate; scales mucronate or acute, free or spreading._

14. C. Haspan, L. Culms sharply angled (1--1 high); leaves linear, often reduced to membranous sheaths; _umbel spreading, the filiform rays mostly longer than the 2-leaved involucre_; spikelets narrowly linear; scales light reddish-brown, oblong, _mucronate, 3-nerved_.--Ponds and ditches, Va. to Fla. and Tex.

15. C. dentatus, Torr. (Pl. 1, fig. 9.) Culms slender (1 high); leaves rigid and keeled; _umbel erect, shorter than the 3--4-leaved involucre_; scales reddish-brown, _with green keel_, ovate, _acute, 7-nerved_.--Sandy swamps, N. Eng. and northern N. Y. to S. C. and W.

Va. Spikes often abortive and changed into leafy tufts.

[+][+] _Achene linear to oblong; scales appressed, pointless or nearly so._

[++] _Perennial by tuberiferous stolons._

16. C. rotundus, L. (NUT-GRa.s.s.) Culm slender (--1 high), longer than the leaves; umbel simple or slightly compound, about equalling the involucre; the few rays each bearing 4--9 _dark chestnut-purple_ 12--40-flowered _acute spikelets_ (4--9" long); _scales ovate, closely appressed, nerveless_ except on the keel.--Sandy fields, Va. to Fla. and Tex.; also adventive near Philadelphia and New York city. (Eu.)

17. C. esculentus, L. Culm (1--2 high) equalling the leaves; umbel often compound, 4--7-rayed, much shorter than the long involucre; _spikelets numerous, light chestnut or straw-color, acutish_, 12--30-flowered (4--7" long); _scales ovate or ovate-oblong narrowly scarious-margined, nerved_, the acutish _tips rather loose_; achene oblong-obovate. (C. phymatodes, _Muhl._)--Low grounds, along rivers, etc., N. Brunswick to Fla., west to Minn, and Tex.; spreading extensively by its small nut-like tubers and becoming a pest in cultivated grounds.