Whitney's Sedge

Culms 25–100 cm. Leaves: sheath fronts brownish; blades 2–6 mm wide. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes white, ovate, 7–30 × 5–9 mm, ciliate distally; terminal spike white-hyaline, tinged red-brown, ovate, 5–30 × 2–4 mm. Perigynia green, ca. 5-veined, 3.7–5.5 × 1.5–2.5 mm; beak tip with narrow, white margins. Achenes ovoid to obovoid, 2.8–3.9 × 1.7–2.4 mm.

Calif., Nev., Oreg.

Fruiting summer.

Dry, sandy and gravelly meadows, open forests; 1200–3400m.

Carex flaccifolia Mackenzie; C. jepsonii J. T. Howell

Carex flaccifolia Mackenzie, Erythea 8: 92. 1922
Rootstocks not seen; culms 6-9 dm. high, slender, weak, sharply triangular, much exceeding leaves, aphyllopodic, sparingly pubescent, not roughened on the angles, dull-lightbrownish at base; leaves with well-developed blades 2-4 to a culm, on lower fourth, but not bunched, not septate-nodulose, the blades flat, flaccid, pubescent on both sides, 0.5-2.5 dm. long, 2-3.5 mm. wide, the mid-lateral nerves prominent above, the sheaths white-pubescent, tight, white-hyaline ventrally, deep-concave at mouth, the ligule conspicuous, longer than wide; staminate spike sessile or short-peduncled, 1-2.5 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the scales appressed, oblong-obovate, obtuse or slightly cuspidate, whitish and more or less dull-yellowishbrown-tinged, the margins hyaline, the center 1-3-nerved; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, approximate, erect, sessile or short-peduncled, oblong, 12-25 mm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, with 12-25 ascending perigynia, not closely arranged, in few rows; bracts leaflet-like, the lowest very short-sheathing, the upper sheathless, the blade of the lowest equaling or exceeded by the inflorescence; scales spreading, ovate, short-cuspidate to acute, about width of and usually somewhat shorter but sometimes somewhat longer than mature perigynia, the body strongly white-hyaline-margined, the apex slightly ciliate-serrulate, the center green, prominently 3-5nerved; perigynia ovoid, 3.5-4.25 mm. long, 2.25 mm. wide, sharply triangular, glabrous, membranaceous, dull-green, puncticulate, strongly several-nerved on each side, round-tapering at base, short-tapering at apex and abruptly short-beaked, the beak 0.25 mm. long, the orifice hyaline, oblique or becoming bidentulate; achenes oval-ovoid, 3.25 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, triangular with concave sides, light-brown, the superficial cells conspicuous, closely enveloped, sessile, apiculate, jointed with the very short (0.5 mm. long) straight style; stigmas 3, rather slender, short.
Type locality: Southwestern California, George B. Grant (U. S. Nat. Herb. no. 468192). Distribution: Said to occur on dry sunny plains in southwestern California, no definite station given. Known only from the type specimen.

Carex whitneyi Olney, Proc. Am. Acad. 7: 394. 1868
Carex pilosiuscula Bock. Flora 65: 61. 1882. (Type from salt plains of the Rocky Mountains.) Not C. pilosiuscula Gobi, 1876.
Densely cespitose, from stout rootstocks, the clumps medium-sized, the culms usually 2.5-5 dm. (or even 10 dm.) high, rather stiff but slender, exceeding the leaves, aphyllopodic, sharply triangular, not at all or but little roughened on the angles, purplish-brown-tinged at base ; leaves with well-developed blades usually 3-5 to a fertile culm, on lower fourth but not bunched, not septate-nodulose, the blades flat with revolute margins, usually 1-2 dm. long, 2.5-8 mm. wide, soft-pubescent on both surfaces, long-acuminate, thin, not stiff, the midlateral nerves prominent above, the sheaths cinnamon-brown-tinged ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule conspicuous, longer than wide; terminal spike staminate, linear, erect, shortpeduncled, 5-30 mm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the scales appressed, ovate, obtuse to acutish, whitish and more or less reddish-brown-tinged with 3-ribbed greenish center; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, approximate, or the lowest considerably separated, erect, sessile or short-peduncled, oblong or linear-oblong, or the uppermost short, 7-30 mm. long, 5-7 mm. wide, the 5-30 perigynia ascending, closely arranged in few rows; bracts well-developed with very short (1-5 mm. long) sheaths, the blade of the lowest leaf-like, 2-12 cm. long, from shorter than to somewhat exceeding the inflorescence; upper bracts reduced; scales appressed, ovate, short-cuspidate to acute, about the width of and from shorter to longer than the mature perigynia, sparingly ciliate-serrulate above, whitish with 3-nerved green center, the margins often chestnut-browntinged; perigynia elliptic-ovoid or elliptic-obovoid, 3.75-5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, sharply triangular, slightly flattened, glabrous, membranaceous, light-green, puncticulate, about 5nerved or 5-ribbed on each side, round-tapering at base and substipitate, tapering or contracted into a smooth short (0.5-0.75 mm. long) beak, with obliquely cut, white-hyaline orifice at length minutely bidentate; achenes oval-obovoid or oval-ovoid, 3 mm. long, 1.8 mm. wide, triangular with concave sides, closely enveloped, substipitate, pointed at apex and minutely apiculate, jointed witn the very short, somewhat thickish style; stigmas 3, slender, reddishbrown.
Type locality: "California, Yosemite Valley, Brewer 1639, Bolander 6198, Hillebrand 2305, 2308, 2314; Mount Dana, 12000 feet, Bolander 5086; Soda Springs, 9000 feet, Brewer 1778."
Distribution: Southern Oregon and northern California, and southward in the Sierra Nevada mountains to Tulare County, California. Erroneously recorded from Colorado by Kukenthal (in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 581). (Specimens examined from all parts of the range as above given.)