Carex Retrosa Schweinitz, p. 113

164 Carex retrorsa, Schweinetz.

Syn. C. reversa Spreng.

Sterile spikes 1 to 3, the highest long, slender, pedunculate, the others short, sessile and often with fertile flowers at the base; fertile spikes 4 to 6, cylindrical, erect, clustered nearly sessile, except the lower which is remote on a long exerted stalk; perigynia crowded spreading, at length reflexed, strongly nerved, tapering from an ovoid contracted base into a conspicuously 2=toothed beak, much larger than the laceolate scale. Culm about 2 feet high. Flowers in May. Marshy borders of streams.

Plate X Fig. 15. a head of spikes one fourth the natural size; b the fertile flower showing the scale, perigynium & stigmas; c the fertile flower with its scale and stamens.

Milwaukee in Wisconsin; Michigan Minnesota; and about Lake Superior
Extends north to the arctic regions.