Plants colonial; rhizomes long-creeping. Culms lateral, trigonous, 25-90 cm, scabrous-angled. Leaves: basal sheaths reddish purple, bladeless, apex of inner band glabrous; ligules 1.2-9 mm; blades green, M-shaped, 2.2-5.5 mm wide, glabrous or finely pubescent beyond ligule. Inflorescences 3-10 cm; peduncles of terminal spikes 2-20 mm; proximal 1-2(-3) spikes pistillate or androgynous, ascending; distal spikes erect; terminal 1(-2) spikes staminate. Pistillate scales ovate, apex acute to acuminate, glabrous, apical margins often scabrous-ciliate. Perigynia ascending, 10-14-veined, broadly ovoid, 2.8-4.5 × 1.3-2.1 mm, densely pubescent, pubescence nearly concealing veins and cellular details; beak 0.9-1.4 mm, friable, erose. Fruiting May-Jun. Dry to moist, open, sandy or gravelly meadows, open woods in acidic soils; 0-400 m; Ala., Conn., Del., D.C., Maine, Md., Mass., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Va. Carex vestita is long persistent in shaded conditions and is stimulated to flower and fruit by fire or other disturbance.

Vigorously colonial by creeping rhizomes, the slender stems 4-8 dm, strongly aphyllopodic; main lvs 3-5 mm wide; staminate spikes 1-3, the terminal one usually 2-5 cm, the lateral much shorter; pistillate spike 1 and subterminal or 2-3 and ±remote, erect, short-cylindric, 1.5-2.5 cm, densely fld, sessile or nearly so; lowest bract shorter than the stem, 2-5 cm; pistillate scales lance-ovate, to as long as the perigynia, acute or acuminate, with purple sides and hyaline margins; perigynia ovoid, 2.8-4.4 mm, densely hairy, abruptly tapering into the beak; beak a third as long as the body, marked with purple on the back, hyaline-tipped, eventually split; achene concavely trigonous. Woods; s. Me. to se. Va.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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