1 mm 
Perigynia of Carex brevior (L), C. straminiformis (R). 
it from two sites in the Three Sisters region of the Cascade 
Mountains. Although Peck (1961) stated it was known from: 
"dry open ground, northern Oregon," his card catalogue had 
no entry for the species. Peck's herbarium (WILLU, archived in 
Corvallis) has only one collection of C. brevior, collected in 
Minnesota, not Oregon. Oregon collections called C. brevior 
were reidentified as C. straminiformis (ORE, OSC, WTU), C. 
breweri var. breweri (ORE), C. mi crop tern (ORE), and C. feta 
(ORE). 
Carex brevior is easily mistaken for C. straminiformis using 
a problematic perigynial nerve character in Hitchcock and 
Cronquist (1973). A more reliable character is the slender beak 
of C. straminiformis, compared to the broad beak of C. brevior 
Carex breweri Boott var. paddoensis (Suks.) Cronquist 
grows in the Cascade Mountains of Washington, from Mt. 
Adams north. Disjunct populations are also known from high 
slopes in the cordillera of several states to the east of Oregon. 
Peck (1961) reported it from Oregon (as C. engelmannii ) on the 
"alpine summits of the Cascade Mountains." Two isotypes from 
Mt. Adams, Washington are at ORE, but we have yet to find an 
Oregon collection labeled as this variety to support Peck's claim 
or Ireland's (1968) report from Middle Sister (Deschutes Co.). 
All the Oregon collections and populations we have seen are the 
more southern variety C. breweri var. breweri, with 3-nerved 
scales. Mature collections of var. paddoensis have scales with one 
nerve, but immature collections of either variety do not show 
the nerves well. Although Mason (1980) never found C. breweri 
in the Wallowa Mountains, we believe var. paddoensis is possible 
there, based on our experience with it on calcareous alpine sub¬ 
strates in central Idaho. 
Carex brunnescens (Pers.) Poir. is a circumboreal species, 
occurring in Eurasia, Greenland, Canada and colder portions of 
the United States, including Washington. Femald (1950) and 
Kartesz (1999) reported it from Oregon (as the synonym ssp. or 
var. sphaerostachya). Peck (1961) described its habitat as: "wet 
places in high mountains," while Mason (1980) reported it from 
open woods and streambanks in the Wallowa Mountains. 
Hitchcock and Cronquist (1973), perhaps following earlier au¬ 
thors, reported C. brunnescens from "wet places" in the Cascade 
Mountains of "southern Oregon." Mackenzie (1931) was more 
1 mm 
Perigynia of C. brunnescens (L), C. laeviculmis (R). 
explicit: "boggy thickets and woods in acid soils...specimens 
examined from...Oregon." Howell (1903) noted C. brunnescens 
"in wet places, Oregon to British Columbia and the eastern 
states." Despite the long literary legacy, when we examined the 
vouchers at hand, we found everything was incorrectly identi¬ 
fied. Most collections were C. laeviculmis (CLNP, GH, ORE, 
OSC, WILLU), although a few were C. praeceptorium (OSC) or 
C. canescens (ORE). 
A long-standing confusion of immature Carex laeviculmis 
with C. brunnescens is partially explained by an emphasis on 
perigynium size in identification keys. The perigynium beak is 
a better character for distinguishing the two when mature. Carex 
laeviculmisbeaks are 0.5-1.0 mm long, narrow, and curve slightly 
outward in the field, while C. brunnescens beaks are usually less 
than 0.5 mm long, broad based, and straight. We feel that it is 
possible C. brunnescens may yet be discovered in Oregon, high 
on Mt. Hood, or in the Wallowa Mts. 
Carex elynoides Holm is an alpine sedge common in Utah, 
and known from Colorado to Montana, Idaho and Nevada. It 
resembles C. nardina and C. filifolia. Brainerd et al. (1995) re¬ 
ported a collection of C. elynoides from Steens Mountain, Harney 
Co., which was later examined and reidentified as C. subnigricans 
(CIC). Mansfield (1995) did not include C. elynoides in his flora 
of Steens Mountain. 
Carex foenea Willd. (var. foenea) is found across Canada 
from British Columbia and the Yukon to Labrador. In the north¬ 
ern U.S. it ranges as far south as Connecticut, Montana and 
Idaho. The Carex Working Group (1993) credited this plant to 
Oregon. But the name is a particularly confusing one. Svenson 
(1938) believed C. foenea (var. foenea) belonged to section 
Arenariae, and was synonymous with C. siccata Dewey. Follow¬ 
ing that taxonomy, Kartesz (1999) continues to list the species 
for Oregon. Gleason and Cronquist (1991) and Tony Reznicek 
(pers. comm.) believe that interpretation was incorrect, and C. 
foenea (var. foenea) is the best name for what we have long called 
C. aenea Femald (sect. Ovales) in local floras (e.g., Hitchcock 
and Cronquist 1973). (Some other twists of fate were involved, 
like the destruction of the Berlin herbarium specimens of 
Willdenow in World War II, and the entanglement of eastern 
plants called C. argyrantha Tuckerman (sect. Ovales) in the syn¬ 
onymy.) Despite all the name-calling, the Carex Working Group 
was unable to locate any vouchers of C. foenea (C. aenea), C. 
Kalmiopsis Volume 7, 2001 
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