Bush's Sedge

Culms 30–90 cm, sparsely pilose. Leaves: sheaths pilose; ligules as long as or slightly longer than wide; blades 1.5–4 mm wide, pilose. Inflorescences: terminal spike gynecandrous, at least 1/2 of flowers pistillate, 12–22 mm; lateral spikes usually crowded, 6–16 × 4.5–11 mm. Pistillate scales lanceolate, 2.5–3.5(–5) × 1.1–1.5(–1.7) mm, exceeding perigynia, apex acuminate, at least proximal scale with awn 0.5–2 mm. Staminate scales lanceolate, 3.2–5.2 mm, apex acuminate, often awned. Anthers 2–3 mm. Perigynia spreading, 9–13-veined, obovate-circular, circular in cross section, 2.5–4 × 1.4–2.1 mm, papillose, pubescent; beak absent. Achenes 2–2.6 × (1.1–)1.4–1.7 mm. 2n = 64.

Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Md., Mass., Mich., Miss., Mo., Nebr., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Okla., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.

Fruiting late spring–early summer.

Dry to mesic grasslands, forest margins; 0–500m.

Carex caroliniana Schweinitz var. cuspidata (Dewey) Shinners

Carex bushii Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 37: 241. 1910
Carex hirsuta var. cuspidata Dewey, in Wood, Class-Book ed. 1861. 758. 1861. (Type from Illinois.) Carex triceps var. longicuspis Kukenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 431. 1909. (Type from St. Louis, Missouri.)
Densely cespitose, not stoloniferous, the culms slender, but stiff and erect, 3-9 dm. high, in medium-sized clumps, sparingly pubescent, triangular with concave sides, shorter than or exceeded by the leaves, aphyllopodic, more or less strongly reddish-tinged at base; welldeveloped leaves 3 or 4 to a culm, not septate-nodulose, on the lower half (excepting uppermost), not bunched, the blades short, soft-pubescent, especially below, the larger 2.5 dm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, flat, erect-ascending, not stiff, the uppermost bract-like leaf usually shortly below the inflorescence and exceeding it, the sheaths long, hairy, tight, concave or truncate and slightly reddish-brown-tinged at mouth, the ligule about as long as wide; spikes usually 2 or 3, oblong or oblong-cylindric, 5-20 mm. long, 5-8 mm. wide (without the scales), the uppermost gynaecandrous with its lower half staminate, the others pistillate, all erect, sessile or nearly so, densely 1 5-40-flowered in several to many rows; bract of lowest spike slender, awl-shaped, somewhat to much exceeding the head, not sheathing; second bract when present much smaller; pistillate scales triangular-lanceolate, long-acuminate, cuspidate or awned, sparingly pilose, narrower than but strongly exceeding the perigynia, somewhat reddishbrown-tinged, with 3-nerved green center and hyaline margins; scales of staminate flowers similar; perigynia 2.5-3.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, broadly obovoid, obtusely obscurely triangular, nearly round in cross-section, somewhat swollen at maturity, turgid and squarrosespreading, olive-green, submembranaceous, rather strongly several-ribbed, minutely asperulous, tapering at base, substipitate, rounded but somewhat tapering at the blunt or slightly pointed entire apex; achenes obovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1.8 mm. wide, sharply triangular with concave sides and prominent rounded angles, nearly filling the perigynium, substipitate, apiculate, the apiculation abruptly bent, jointed with the short bent thickish style; stigmas 3, slender, short.
Type locality: Fulton, Arkansas. (Bush 2514).
Distribution: Dry meadows and banks in calcareous districts, Massachusetts to Michigan and southward to District of Columbia, Mississippi and Texas. (Specimens examined from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas.

Carex bushii, Bush's sedge, is a species of sedge in the genus Carex. It native to the eastern United States where it is found in areas of natural grassland.

Carex bushii is distinguished from the similar Carex caroliniana, Carex complanata, and Carex hirsutella by having pistillate scales that are at least as long as the perigynia (the covering of the achene).