Parry's Sedge

Plants loosely cespitose. Culms 10–35 cm, distally scabrous. Leaves 2–4 mm wide. Inflorescences: proximal bracts shorter than or exceeding inflorescences; spikes erect, separate, proximal spikes occasionally distant, pedunculate, short-oblong or cylindric, 5–20 × 2–3 mm; lateral 2–5 spikes pistillate, distalmost often reduced to 1–3 perigynia, of varying lengths, proximal 1 or more as long as the terminal spike; terminal spike pistillate, gynecandrous (proportion of pistillate to staminate flowers variable, as few as 2 or 3 perigynia at summit), or wholly staminate. Pistillate scales light to dark brown, distal margins broadly hyaline, ovate, as long and as wide as perigynia, midvein lighter colored than body, conspicuous, often raised, prominent, distally scabrous, apex rounded, acute or mucronate. Perigynia ascending, greenish yellow or brown, veinless, elliptic, 2–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm, apex abruptly beaked, papillose; beak to 0.2 mm, truncate or obscurely bidentate, serrulate. Achenes nearly filling body of perigynia.

Alta., B.C., Man., Ont., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Utah, Wyo.

Fruiting May–Aug.

Alkaline meadows, lake margins, roadsides, ditches; 200–2500m.

Carex arctica Dewey

Carex parryana Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 27: 239. pi. U,f. 65. 1835
Carex arctica Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 27: 239. pi. U, /. 66. 1835. (Type from Carleton House,
Saskatchewan.) Not C. arctica Deinb. 1842. Carex Parryana var. Torr. Ann. Lye N. Y. 3 : 426. 1836. (Based on C. arctica Dewey.)
Very loosely cespitose and stoloniferous, the stolons long, slender, horizontal, scaly, the clumps small, the culms 1.5-4 dm. high, central, slender, stiff, papillose, usually strongly exceeding the leaves, obtusely triangular below, smooth, or slightly roughened above, phyllopodic, reddish-purple and scarcely fibrillose at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; leaves with well-developed blades usually 5-12 to a fertile culm, clustered near the base, not septate-nodulose, the blades erect or ascending, light-green, thin but stiff, flat with revolute margins, 5-30 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, roughened towards the apex, long-attenuate, the sheaths very thin and white-hyaline ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule about as long as wide; spikes 3-5, the lateral pistillate, the terminal gynaecandrous (sometimes nearly staminate), more or less strongly separate or the upper approximate, erect, linear, 0.7-2 cm. long, 3 mm. wide, the lower short-peduncled, the upper sessile, closely 7-20-flowered in few rows, the perigynia closely appressed; lowest bract usually shorter than the head, not sheathing or but short-sheathing, purplish-red-tinged at base, the upper much smaller; scales small, 2-2.5 mm. long, persistent, dark-reddish-brown, with green midvein prominent to apex, and conspicuous white-hyaline margins, suborbicular, obtuse or short-mucronate, as wide as and about length of perigynia and concealing them; perigynia broadly obovoid, unequally triangular and sharp-edged before maturity, obtusely triangular at maturity, not inflated, 2-2.5 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, glabrous, membranaceous, puncticulate, straw-colored, purplish-tinged and rough-granular towards apex, 2-ribbed (the marginal), otherwise nerveless or nearly so, shorttapering and short-stipitate at base, tapering or somewhat rounded at apex and scarcely beaked, the beak 0.1-0.2 mm. long, bidentulate, hyaline and slightly ciliate at mouth; achenes obovoid, very closely enveloped, filling perigynium, 1.5-1.75 mm. long, 1-1.25 mm. wide, triangular with slightly concave sides, shortly stipitate, brownish, slightly granular, strongly apiculate, jointed w-ith the slender more or less prominently exserted style; stigmas 3, slender, short, brownish.
Type locality: "Hudson's Bay" Manitoba (Dr. Richardson).
Distribution: Plains and openings, Manitoba to Alberta and Mackenzie. (Specimens examined from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Mackenzie.)