26dd. CAREX Linnaeus sect. CAREYANAE Tuckerman ex Kükenthal in H. G. A. Engler, Pflanzenr. 20[IV,38]: 522. 1909.
Charles T. Bryson & Robert F. C. Naczi
Plants densely or loosely cespitose, short-rhizomatous. Culms brown or purple at base. Leaves: basal sheaths not fibrous; sheath fronts membranous; blades M-shaped in cross section when young, adaxial side of blades with 2 lateral veins more prominent than midvein, leaves often over 10 mm wide, cauline leaves sometimes bladeless, glabrous. Inflorescences racemose, with 3–5(–6) spikes; proximal nonbasal bracts leaflike or bladeless, long-sheathing; lateral spikes pistillate, frequently basal, sometimes with 1–2 staminate flowers proximally, pedunculate, prophyllate; terminal spike staminate. Proximal pistillate scales with apex obtuse to awned. Perigynia ascending, distinctly 8-veined or more, sessile, broadly to narrowly ovate, acutely trigonous in cross section, base tapering, truncate, apex tapering to beak, glabrous; beak less than or more than 5 mm, orifice entire. Stigmas 3. Achenes trigonous, smaller than bodies of perigynia; style deciduous.
Species 8 (8 in the flora): temperate e North America.
Eight species formerly included in sect. Laxiflorae in recent floras have been segregated into sect. Careyanae. See R. F. C. Naczi et al. (2001) for distinguishing these sections and also discussion under sect. Laxiflorae.
Bryson, C. T. 1980. A revision of North American Carex sect. Laxiflorae (Cyperaceae). Ph.D. dissertation. Mississippi State University. Naczi, R. F. C., R. Kral, and C. T. Bryson. 2001. Carex cumberlandensis, a new species of section Careyanae (Cyperaceae) from the eastern United States of America. Sida 19: 993–1014.