Carex decomposita Muhl.

Carex decomposita Muhl. Descr. Gram. 264. 1817
Carrx NuUallii Schw. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 65. 1824. (Type from Arkansas; an obscure species,
doubtfully referred here.) Carex paniculata var. decomposita Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 10: 276. 1826. (Based on C. decomposita
Muhl.)
Densely cespitose, the rootstocks very short, lignescent, blackish, fibrillose, the culms stout at base (4-8 mm. thick), slender above but stiff, more or less roughened on the angles above, 4-10 dm. high, obtusely triangular with convex sides, from shorter than to much exceeding the leaves, darkor blackish-brown at base and clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lowest bladeless; leaves of the year with well-developed blades several to a culm, on lower third, strongly separate, the blades erect, very long, 2-7 dm. long, 2.5-8 mm. wide, flat or somewhat canaliculate, thickish, light-green, stiff, the margins and main nerves (especially in the larger leaves) very serrulate, the sheaths tight, septate-nodulose dorsally, hyaline and strongly purplish-red-dotted ventrally, concave and slightly reddish-brown-tinged at mouth, the ligule wider than long; spikes androgynous, very numerous, in a decompound panicle 4-15 cm. long, 1-4.5 cm. wide, the panicle-branches widely separated but the spikes closely aggregated on the branches, the spikes with several to many spreading perigynia and inconspicuous terminal staminate flowers; bracts absent or occasionally one or two short ones present, 2 cm. long or less, awl-shaped, long-attenuate; scales ovate-triangular, mucronate, hyaline, with 3-nerved green center, narrower and rather shorter than the perigynia; perigynia unequally biconvex, high-convex dorsally, low-convex ventrally, thick, very coriaceous, olive or brownish-green, 2-2.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, the body broadly obpyramidal, few-nerved dorsally, several-nerved at the base ventrally, sharp-edged ventrally to base and serrulate on upper part, tapering at base into a short stipe, very spongy at base, very abruptly beaked, the beak slender but flat, shallowly bidentate, serrulate, one third length of body; achenes very closely enveloped, lenticular, oblong-elliptic, slightly more than 1 mm. long and less than 1 mm. wide, apiculatc, substipitate; style very short, slender, slightly enlarged at base, jointed with achene; stigmas two, light-reddish-brown, slender, short.
Type locality: "Habitat in Cherokee."
Distribution: Swamps, Florida to Louisiana, and northward to Maryland and west of the mountains to Michigan and western New York; very local northward. (Specimens examined from western New York, Maryland, Ohio. Michigan, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas. Louisiana. Alabama, Florida.)