SEDGE FAMILY 



315 



80. Carex arcta Boott 

 Northern Clustered Sedge. 



Fig. 756. 



Carev caiicscciis po!vstachva Boott in Richards. Arct. Exped. 2: 34-t. 



1852. 

 Carex arcta Boott, 111. Car. 4: 155. pi. 497. 1867. 

 Care.v canesceiis oregana Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1: 75. 1889. 



Cespitose. the culms slender, erect. 1.5-8 dm. high, very 

 rough above, usuallj- strongly exceeded by the leaves. Leaf- 

 blades flat, 2^ mm. wide, glaucous or light-green; spikes 

 5-15, 5-10 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, many-flowered, aggregated 

 into a head 1.5-3 cm. long, 7-12 mm. wide; lower one or 

 two bracts developed ; scales ovate, obtusish to short cuspi- 

 date, shorter than perigynia, hyaline with green midvein, 

 more or less brownish tinged; perigynia ovate, plano-convex, 

 2-3 mm. long, nearly 1.25 mm. wide, ascending or somewhat 

 spreading, sharp-edged but not winged, many nerved dorsally. 

 lightlv nerved at base ventrally, white puncticulate, rounded 

 and short stipitate at base, tapering into the short, serrulate, 

 shallowly bidentate beak, which is obliquely cut and fissured 

 on the dorsal side; achenes lenticular; style slender, jointed 

 with achene ; stigmas 2. 



Swamps and wet woods, Transition and Canadian Zones; New Bruns- 

 wick to British Columbia, south to New York, Montana, and north- 

 western California. Type locality: Canada. 



81. Carex saximontana Mackenzie. 

 Rocky Mountain Sedge. Fig. 757. 



Carcv sa.viiiwntaiia Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 33: 439. 1906. 



Cespitose, the culms up to 2.5 dm. long, triangular, weak, 

 strongly winged above. Leaves nearly basal, strongly exceeding 

 culms, strongly glaucous, the blades 1.5-3 din. long, 3-5 mm. 

 wide; spikes 2-4, androgynous, the rachis zigzag, dilated, one 

 terminal, the others basal on slender often much elongated 

 peduncles, the staminate flowers with small tight scales, the 

 pistillate flowers 2-5, the lower subtended by enlarged, leaf-like, 

 saccate scales, the upper by scales which are ovate lanceolate 

 and shorter than the perigynia; perigynia 4 mm. long, the body 

 oblong-orbicular, 2.5 mm. long, 2 mm. thick, nearly round in 

 cross-section, 2-keeled but otherwise nearly nerveless, tapering 

 to a stipitate base, contracted into the short, hyaline, slightly 

 toothed, flattened, triangular beak scarcely 1 mm. long; achenes 

 triangular, stipitate, closely enveloped, the apex rounded, con- 

 stricted at the base, the sides convex: style jointed with achene, 

 slender, soon withering; stigmas 3. short. 



Woods and thickets, Transition Zone; Colorado and western Nebraska to 

 eastern Oregon. Type locality: Fort Collins, Colorado. 



82. Carex leptalea Wahl. 

 Bristle-stalked Sedge. Fig. 758. 



Care.v leptalea Wahl. Vet. Akad. Handl. Stockholm 139. 1803. 



Care.v microstachya Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 169. 1803; not Ehrh. 1788. 



Carex polytrichoides Muhl. in Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 213. 1805. 



Densely tufted from slender rootstocks, the culms very slender, 

 2-6 dm. high, obscurely triangular, smooth or slightly roughened, 

 mostlv exceeding leaves, the leaf-blades 0.5-1.25 mm. wide, flat or 

 channelled. Spike solitary, linear, androgynous, bractless, 4-15 mm. 

 long, 2-3 mm. wide, the staminate part varying from inconspicuous 

 to occupving nearly the whole spike; pistillate scales (except lowest) 

 ovate, very obtuse to short-pointed, half length of perigynia, red- 

 dish-brown tinged with hyaline margins and green center; peri- 

 gynia 1-10, oval-elliptic, round-triangular, or somewhat flajttened 

 in cross-section, more or less strongly overlapping, 2.5-4.25 rnm. 

 long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, membranaceous, finely many striate, substipi- 

 tate, rounded and beakless at apex ; achenes triangular ; style slender, 

 flexuous ; stigmas 3, short. 



Bogs and wet meadows verv widely distributed. Humid Transition and 

 Canadian Zones; Labrador to Alaska, south to Florida. Texas, and Humboldt 

 County, California. Uncommon in our range. Tyjie locality: Pennsylvania. 



