Muskingum Sedge

Plants densely cespitose. Culms 40–100 cm; vegetative culms conspicuous, with spreading leaf blades evenly along stem. Leaves: sheaths adaxially green-veined to within 3 mm of collar, adaxially firm, summits usually brown tinged, U- or V-shaped, thick; distal ligules to 2 mm; blades 7–12 per fertile culm, 12–25 cm × 3–5 mm. Inflorescences open at least proximally, brown, (4–)5–9 cm × 10–20 mm; proximal internode (4–)5–15 mm; 2d internode (3–)5–11 mm; proximal bracts scalelike. Spikes 5–12, distant, distinct, lanceoloid, 12–28 × 3.5–7 mm, bases tapered, apex acute. Pistillate scales white-hyaline or pale brown with pale brown midstripe, oblong-ovate, 4–5 mm, 1/2 length of and narrower than perigynia, apex acute. Perigynia appressed-erect, pale brown, conspicuously 5–7-veined abaxially, conspicuously 3–7-veined adaxially, lanceolate, flat to plano-convex, 6–9 × (1.5–) 2–2.5 mm, 0.3 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.2–0.4 mm wide; beak tip flat, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture inconspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 3.1–4.5 mm. Achenes elongate-oblong, 2–2.7 × 0.8–0.9 mm, 0.3 mm thick. 2n = 80.

Ont.; Ark., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., Mich., Minn., Mo., Ohio, Okla., Tenn., Wis.

Fruiting early–mid summer.

Moist to wet, deciduous flood plains, lowland woods, and thickets; 100–400m.

Carex muskingumensis Schw. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 66. 1824
Carex arida Schw. & Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 312. pi. 24, f. 2. 1825. (Based on C. muskingumensis Schw.)
"Carex scoparia Schkuhr" Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 394. 1836. (In part, i. e., as to C. muskingumensis Schw.)
Carex scoparia var. muskingumensis Tuckerm. Enum. Caric. 817. 1843. (Based on C. muskingumensis Schw.)
Thysanocarex muskingumensis Fedde & Schuster, Bot. Jahresb. 41 2 : 12. 1918. (Based on Carex muskingumensis Schw.)
Cespitose, from short-prolonged, stout, blackish, fibrillose rootstocks, the sterile culms numerous, the fertile few, 6-10 dm. high, exceeding the leaves, slender to base but strict, roughened on the angles above, sharply triangular, the sides concave, brownish-tinged below and conspicuously clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless, the lower nodes exposed; sterile culms very leafy, with many leaves, the blades widely spreading; fertile culms with about 7-12 well-developed leaves, regularly disposed on the lower half, the blades flat, light-green, thin but stiff, noticeably spreading, usually 1.5-2.5 dm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, roughened on the margins and towards the apex, the sheaths rather loose, green-striate ventrally nearly to mouth, very firm and not breaking, deeply concave at mouth, the ligule thickish, as wide as long; blades of sterile shoots wider (4-5 mm.) and semicordate at base; inflorescence consisting of 5-12 approximate, linear-elliptic spikes forming a linearoblong to oblong head 5-8 cm. long, 15-20 mm. thick, the spikes gynaecandrous, straw-colored or brownish, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, tapering to the blunt apex, tapering to a subclavate (or sometimes clavate) base, the basal flowers staminate, not conspicuous, rarely numerous and conspicuous, the numerous perigynia erect, closely appressed, with closely appressed beaks; bracts scale-like or the lowest short-prolonged; scales oblong-ovate, acute or obtusish, yellowish-brown with conspicuous hyaline margins and 3-nerved lighter center, rather narrower than and about half the length of the perigynia; perigynia flat and scalelike, somewhat distended over the achene, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 7-10 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, rather strongly wing-margined and serrulate to below middle, somewhat abruptly contracted into a narrower wing-margin extending to base, membranaceous, straw-colored, the margins pellucid above, finely severalto many-nerved both dorsally and ventrally, roundtapering at base, tapering at apex into a beak about one third the length of the whole, flat, serrulate, obliquely cut dorsally, deeply bidentate, slightly reddish-brown-tipped; achenes lenticular, linear-oblong, 2.5 mm. long, 0.75 mm. wide, yellowish-brown, short-stipitate, conspicuously apiculate; style straight, slender, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, slender, reddish-brown, short.
Type locality: "Ohio" ("Tuscarora county, Ohio, near Muskingum river" Schw. & Torr. Ann. Lvc. N. Y. 1: 313).
DiSTBiBtrnoN: Moist woods and thickets, Ohio and Kentucky to Manitoba, Missouri and eastern Kansas. A very well-marked species. (Specimens mamined from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan. Wise ita, Manitoba, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, eastern ^ i

Carex muskingumensis is a species of sedge known by the common name Muskingum sedge. It is native primarily to the Midwestern United States where it is found in wet areas such as swamps, low woods, and sedge meadows. It is a fairly conservative species, usually being found in areas where native vegetation is intact.