I. SPECIES INFORMATION 

 A. CLASSIFICATION 



1. SCIENTIFIC NAME: Carex parryana Dewey ssp. idahoa 

 (Bailey) Murray 



2. SYNONYMS: Carex idahoa Bailey 



3. COMMON NAME: Idaho sedge 



4. BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION: First described as Carex 

 idahoa; Bailey, L. H. 1896. Notes on Carex. XVIII. 

 Botanical Gazette 21: 5. Described as Carex 

 parryana ssp. idahoa; Murray, D. F. 1969. 

 Taxonomy of Carex Sect. Atratae (Cyperaceae) in 

 the Southern Rocky Mountains. Brittonia 21: 55- 

 76. 



5. TYPE SPECIMEN: United States, Idaho, Clark 

 County, Beaver Canyon, P. A. Rydberg 2 3 39 

 (Holotype US) 



6 . FAMILY : Cyperaceae 



7. GENUS: Carex is a cosmopolitan genus with 1500- 

 2000 species worldwide (Hickey and King 1988) and 

 ca. 600 species in North America (Hermann 1970) . 



8. SPECIES: According to Murray's (1969) treatment 

 Carex parryana has three subspecies: parryana, 

 hallii and idahoa. All have been considered 

 separate species by other authors (e.g. Hermann 

 1970) . Subspecies idahoa was first described as 

 Carex idahoa by Bailey (1989) . Subsequently 

 Murray (1969) stated that the boundaries between 

 the three taxa were blurred but they have 

 "geographic importance." He thus treated them as 

 subspecies and formally named Carex parryana ssp. 

 idahoa. Booth (1950), Davis (1952) and Hermann 

 (1970) all recognized Carex idahoa at the species 

 level. However, Cronquist (Hitchcock et al. 1969) 

 did not recognize the taxon at any level and 

 referred to it as "a form with relatively long, 

 narrow, acute pistillate scales." Anton Reznicek 

 (University of Michigan, pers. comm.) prefers to 

 follow Murray's (1969) monographic treatment. 



In Montana both ssp. parryana and ssp. idahoa 

 often occur together without intermediates. 

 Subspecies parryana seems to be more tolerant of 

 salty conditions than idahoa. In habitats with 



