Coastal Sedge

Culms 12–80 cm. Leaves 2–6 per culm; sheaths tight, inner band hyaline, 3.5–21 cm, apex concave, glabrous; ligules rounded, 0.8–1.8 × 0.6–1.6 mm; blades involute, 4–70 cm × 0.4–1.5 mm, widest leaf 0.8–1.5 mm wide. Inflorescences 0.6–4 cm; spike 1 (occasionally 1–3 smaller accessory spikes), gynecandrous with staminate portion of spike 1–3 mm wide, to 50-flowered and pistillate portion of spike 5–9.5 mm wide, to 27-flowered or plants sometimes unisexual with staminate and pistillate spikes on different plants. Pistillate scales ovate, 1.8–3.3 × 1.3–2.2 mm, apex acute. Staminate scales lanceolate to ovate, 1.7–5.5 × 1–2.2 mm, apex acute. Anthers (2–)2.2–3.6 mm. Perigynia spreading to reflexed, castaneous to dark brown, 15-veined abaxially, faintly 7-veined adaxially, lanceolate-ovate to broadly ovate, 2.6–4.7 × 1.25–2.3 mm, 1.3–2.65 times as long as wide; beak 0.5–1.7 mm, 0.2–0.65 length of body, serrulate, teeth blunt, to 0.35 mm, soft. Achenes ovate, 1.4–2.2 × 1.2–1.7 mm.

St. Pierre and Miquelon; N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que.; Ala., Del., Maine, Md., Mass, Mich., Minn., Miss., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., Vt., Wis.

Fruiting late spring–early summer.

Fens, bogs; 0–500m.

Carex exilis Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 14: 351. pi. Q,f. 53. 1828
Carex exilis var. squamacea Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 14: 351. pi. (), f. 54. 1828. (Type from Massachusetts.) Vignea exilis Raf. Good Book 27. 1840. (Based on Carex exilis Dewey.)
Carex exilis var. androgvna Dewey, in Wood, Class-Book ed. 1861. 750. 1861. (Type from New York.)
Very densely cespitose, the rootstock not at all prolonged, the culms 1.5-7 dm. high, slender, stiff and wiry, obtusely triangular, roughened beneath head, noticeably exceeding the leaves, dark-brown at base and clothed with the conspicuous dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lowest short-bladcd; leaves with well-developed blades usually 2 or 3 to a culm, somewhat clustered near the base, the blades stiff, light-green, erect, usually 5-10 cm. long on the fertile culms, longer on the sterile, 0.5 mm. wide, narrowly involute, attenuate, slightly roughish above, the sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally, thin, concave and yellowish-browntinged at mouth, the ligule short; spike solitary, usually gynaecandrous, but sometime! entirely staminate or entirely pistillate or androgynous or frequently or occasionally with one or two small lateral spikes, linear or linear-oblong, often somewhat clavate at base, 1-3 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, the lower 2-3 scales short-cuspidate, empty; pistillate scales ovate-orbicular, obtuse or sharp-pointed, reddish-brown with green midrib and conspicuous white hyaline margins, narrower and about length of bodies of the perigynia; staminate scales similar, perigynia on well-developed spikes numerous (20-35), ■pleading, piano convex, ovate, 3 mm long. 1 5 mm. wide, coriaceous, thick, olive-green or at maturity yellowish I. rowu. lharp edges slightl'. '»,'ly serrulate above middle, leveral nerved dot
i or nearly so ventrally, rounded an bate, contracted into a strongly
serrulate beak half length of body, bidentate, chestnut -brow n tipped, the apes and doi ftl suture more or lew hyalini ticular, ovate-reni/orm, sub yellow,
1.75mm long, 1.5 mm wfc der, traight, jointed with achene, at length deciduous;
rathei long. Type locality: Danvers, Massachusetts (Oakes).
Distribution: In sphagnum bogs and acid soils, Labrador to Delaware, mostly near the coast. Locally inland in Vermont, New York, northwestern New Jersey, Ontario, Michigan, and Minnesota. (Specimens examined from Labrador, Newfoundland, St. Pierre. Quebec (including Magdalen Islands). Nova Scotia (including Cape Breton Island), Maine. Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island. New York, New Jersey (pine barrens and Sussex County), Delaware. Ontario. Michigan.)

Carex exilis, common name coastal sedge or meager sedge, is a species of Carex native to North America, with several disjunct populations from southern Canada to the Gulf Coast. It is rare in much of its range and is listed as an endangered species in Connecticut by state authorities.