Carex tenax Chapm. ex Dewey:
United States (North America)

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Global Range: Regional endemic in southeast: found in five states - NC, SC, GA, FL, MISS; in FLorida found in LIBE, GADS, CALH, HOLM, WASH, WALT, OKAL.

Plants loosely cespitose; rhizomes stout. Culms 20–50 cm, smooth, glabrous. Leaf blades V-shaped in cross section when young, 1.5–2.8 mm wide, usually involute, proximally puberulent. Inflorescences: proximal bracts sheathless or sheath not more than 2(–5) mm; lateral spikes 10–20 × 5–9 mm, all in distal 1/2 of stem; terminal spike 10–32 × 1.5–3 mm. Pistillate scales 3–5-veined, ovate, 2.8–5 × 1.6–2.2 mm, proximal ones shorter than perigynia, apex acute. Staminate scales 3-veined, 4.5–5.5 × 1.6–2.2 mm. Perigynia 20–30-veined, subsessile, ovoid to obovoid, 4–6 × 1.9–2.4 mm, pilose, hairs not more than 0.2 mm; beak distinct or obscure, to 0.5 mm. Achenes sessile, 3–3.5 × 1.9–2 mm, almost filling bodies of perigynia.

Comments: Dry sandy sites in turkey oak/bluejack oak woods; Longleaf pine/turkey oak sandhills; ruderal in sandy fields and roadsides. Dry, coarse soils.

Fruiting late spring–summer. Dry to dry-mesic, longleaf pine and sand-hill savannas; 0–200 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 3
Species: 3
Species With Barcodes: 1

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Southeastern regional endemic fairly consistantly found on sandhills within its range.

Biological Research Needs: Listed by Alabama and North Carolina heritage programs as S2. Georgia H.P. does not list it.

Comments: Also known as Carex validior Mackenz.; a caespitose sedge with relatively short thick heads and triangular nutlets. Flowering stems same length as leaves.