Mead's Sedge

Separating Carex meadii and C. tetanica can be problematic, particularly in the Great Lakes region where they seem to integrade with each other. Carex meadii, the more wide-ranging taxon, can tolerate drier habitats. In addition to the characters in the key, C. meadii tends to be a coarser plant with more grayish green leaves, shorter peduncles (bearing the staminate and proximal pistillate spikes), and thicker spikes. The perigynia, including the proximal ones, are strongly aggregated and borne in more ranks within the spike. Also, the beaks of C. meadii may be more distinct and sharply curved.

Due to confusion with Carex meadii, the geographic range of C. tetanica is not fully known.

Plants colonial, long-rhizomatous, vegetative shoots widely scattered and inconspicuous from deep rhizomes. Culms 15–60 cm, usually scabrous distally. Leaves: proximal sheaths with blades, brownish, 1.5–5 mm diam.; ligules 0.4–3.6 mm, 0.4–1.2 times wider than long; blades gray-green, flat, 7–15 cm × 2–5(–7) mm, folded near bases, margins often revolute, herbaceous. Inflorescences 4–25 cm, 1–1.6 times as long as proximal bracts; proximal bract 2.5–20 cm, sheath 0.5–4 cm, blade 2–16 cm; pistillate spikes ovoid to cylindric, 6–37 × 3.5–8 mm; lateral spikes erect or ascending on stiff peduncles. Pistillate scales purple tinged or brown, apex awned or obtuse. Perigynia ascending to spreading, densely arranged, yellow-green to brown, 2.3–5 × 1.25–2.5 mm, minutely papillose; beak minute, bent. Achenes light to dark brown, 2.7–4 × 1.7–2.2(–2.5) mm.

Man., Ont., Sask.; Ala., Ark., Ariz., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.J., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Va., Wis.; Mexico.

Fruiting late spring–early summer.

Calcareous prairies, fens, cedar glades, open woodlands, moist depressions; 50–2400m.

Carex tetanica Schkuhr var. meadii (Dewey) L. H. Bailey

Carex meadii Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 43 : 90. 1842
Carex multinervis Bock. Flora 38: 596. 1855. (Type doubtfully from Texas.)
Carex panicea var. Meadii OIney, Caric. Bor.-Am. 2. 1871. (Based on C. Meadii Dewey.)
Carex panicea var. Canbyi OIney and /. prolifera OIney, Caric. Bor.-Am. 3. 1871. (Names only, but
type from Delaware County, Pennsylvanica.) Carex tetanica var. Meadii L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: US. 1886. "Carex panicea L." Olney; L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: US. in part. 1886. (As synonym of
C. Utattica var. Meadii L. H. Baiiey.) Carex telanica var. Canbyi Porter, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1887: 76. 1887. (Based on C. panicea vslt.
Canbyi Olney.) Carex Ulanica var. Carleri Porter, Proc. Acad. Phila. 1887: 76. 1887. (T>'pe from New Texas,
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.) Carex Utattica var. Meadii f. Canbyi Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4=»: 515. 1909. (Based on
C. tetanica var. Canbyi Porter.)
Rootstocks slender, often very elongate, the clumps small or medium-sized, sending forth long, horizontal, deep-seated, whitish, slender stolons, the culms 2-5 dm. high, stoutish, stiff, phyllopodic, exceeding the leaves, sharply triangular, smooth or little roughened, brovfnish or slightly purplish-tinged, and often fibrillose at base; sterile shoots short or elongate, phyllopodic; leaves with well-developed blades 3-6 to a fertile culm, clustered towards the base, the blades grayish-green, thickish, flat, usually 7-15 cm, long, 2.5-7 mm, wide, smooth-margined and with edges involute towards base, roughened towards the apex on the margins; sterileciilm leaves more numerous; sheaths tight, smooth, not readily ruptured, concave at mouth, the ligule ver>' short; terminal spike staminate, on a long rough peduncle, the spike linear or oblong-clavate, 1.5-4 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, very obtuse, purplish-red with 3-nerved green center and hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 1-3, widely separate, erect, the lower long-exsert-peduncled, the upper short-exsert-peduncled, the peduncles rough, the spikes oblong or linear-oblong, 1-3.5 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, containing 8-30 closely arranged ascending perigynia in several rows; bracts leaflet-like, short, shorter than the culms, strongly sheathing, the sheaths somewhat enlarged upward, smooth, rather loose; scales very variable, ovate, strongly-awned to obtuse, as wide as or wider than the perigynia and from half the length to exceeding the perigynia, purplish-brown with 3-nerved green center and hyaline margins; perigynia obovoid, obtusely triangular, somewhat turgid at maturity, 2-keeled and strongly many-nerved, 3-5 mm. long, 1.75-2.5 mm, wide, membranaceous, puncticulate, yellowish-green or becoming brownish, sessile, tapering to the base, abruptly narrowed at apex into a minute more or less strongly bent beak, with entire or emarginate purplish-tinged orifice; achenes broadly obovoid, tapering at base, sessile, 2.75-3.5 mm. long, 1.5-2.5 mm. wide, closely enveloped, triangular with concave sides and blunt angles, brownishblack with greenish angles, strongly granular, abruptly strongly apiculate, jointed with the short, stoutish style ; stigmas three, slender, reddish-brown, rather long.
Type locality: "Found by Dr. S. B. Mead at Augusta, Illinois."
Distribution*: Prairies and meadows, in calcareous districts, western New Jersey to Saskatchewan, and southward to Georgia and Texas. (Specimens examined from western New Jersey, Penn sylvania. North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas.)