Carex gigantea Rudge

Plants loosely cespitose or not, long-rhizomatous. Culms solitary or not, erect, 35–120 cm. Leaves 4–8; basal sheaths reddish to brownish; sheath of distal leaf 5–20 cm; ligules triangular, 4.5–35 mm; blades 20–60 cm × 5–16 mm. Inflorescences 15–40 cm; peduncles of basal 2 pistillate spikes 5–20 cm apart; of terminal 3–8 cm shorter than to somewhat exceeding the distal pistillate spike; bracts leafy, sheath 0.5–5 cm, blades 30–60 cm × 6–11 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 2–5 per culm, ± separate, 20–75-flowered, cylindric, 3–8 × 2–3 cm; terminal staminate spikes 1–5, 2–8 cm × 2–4 mm. Pistillate scales 3–5-veined, lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 4.5–10.5 × 1.5–2 mm. Anthers 3, 2.8–5 mm. Perigynia stiffly spreading at right angles to rachis, lanceoloid to lance-ovoid, 11–18 × 4–6 mm, shiny, glabrous; beak conic, 6–9 mm. Achenes broadly stipitate, obconic with rounded to truncate summit and concave faces, angles strongly thickened, 2.2–2.6 × 2.7–3 mm; style same texture as achene.

Ala., Ark., Del., Fl., Ga., Ill., Ind., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

Fruiting late spring–early summer.

Wet swamp forests, forest openings, open swamps; 0–400m.

Carex gigantea Rudge, Trans. Linn. Soc 7: 99. pi. 10, f. 2. 1804.
Carex lacustris var. giganlea Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 1 : 45. 1814. (Based on C. gigantea Rudge.) Carex grandis L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1 : 13. 1889. (Based on C. gigantea Auth.) Carex gigantea var. grandis Farwell, Rhodora 23: 87. 1921. (Based on C. grandis L. H. Bailey.)
Cespitose, from short stout rootstocks, sending forth long, scaly, horizontal stolons, the clumps medium-sized, the culms 4-10 dm. high, stout, exceeded by the upper leaves and bracts, phyllopodic, sharply triangular, smooth or nearly so, light-brown or somewhat purplishtinged at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; leaves with well-developed blades usually 4-8 to a fertile culm, strongly septate-nodulose, regularly placed, even the lower little clustered, the blades flat, thin but firm, dull-green, usually 2-6 dm. long, 5-16 mm. wide, very rough towards the apex, especially on the margins, the sheaths yellowish-tinged ventrally, little or not at all prolonged at mouth, the ligule conspicuous, longer than wide; staminate spike solitary, or spikes sometimes 2-5, narrowly linear when solitary, shortor long-peduncled, 2-8 cm. long, 3.5 mm. wide, the scales linear-obovate to lanceolate, strongly awned to acuminate, straw-colored with strongly several-nerved green center and hyaline margins; lowest scale bractlike, from half as long as to exceeding the spike; pistillate spikes 2-4, occasionally staminate above, erect, closely aggregated or the lowest somewhat separate, nearly sessile or on smooth peduncles rarely more than half the length of the spikes, oblong or oblong-cylindric, 3-8 cm. long, 2.5-3 cm. wide, densely flowered, the perigynia 20-75, widely spreading at maturity in about six rows; bracts leaf -like, several to many times exceeding inflorescence, the lower strongly sheathing, the upper short-sheathing, the sheaths shortprolonged and convex at mouth; scales lanceolate, acuminate or the lower rough-awned, straw-colored with strongly several-nerved green center and hyaline margins, much narrower and shorter than the perigynia; perigynia narrowly ovoid, 12-18 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, suborbicular in cross-section, inflated, subcoriaceous, smooth, deep-green or yellowish-green at maturity, strongly about 20-ribbed, round-truncate at base, sessile, tapering into a very long, slender, somewhat roughened, bidentate beak two to three times as long as the body, the teeth 0.5-1.5 mm. long, slender, stiff, erect to spreading, smooth within; achenes orbicularrhomboid or reniform-rhomboid, wider or much wider than long, 2.5 mm. long, 3 mm. wide, loosely enveloped, triangular with deeply concave sides and blunt angles, each angle bearing a strongly developed knob, abruptly contracted at base and broadly stipitate, abruptly contracted into and continuous with the persistent, slender, more or less strongly flexuous style; stigmas 3, short, slender, blackish. Type locality: "Habitat in Carolina."
Distribution: Swampy woodlands, Florida to Texas, and northward in the Mississippi Valley to western Kentucky, southeastern Missouri, and southwestern Indiana, and east <>l the mountains northward to Delaware. (Specimens examined from Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Kentucky, Missouri, Indiana.)

Carex gigantea adalah spesies tumbuhan seperti rumput yang tergolong ke dalam famili Cyperaceae. Spesies ini juga merupakan bagian dari ordo Poales. Spesies Carex gigantea sendiri merupakan bagian dari genus Carex. Nama ilmiah dari spesies ini pertama kali diterbitkan oleh Rudge.

Carex gigantea là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Cói. Loài này được Rudge mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1804.