Carex nebraskensis Dewey

Carex nebraskensis Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. II. 18: 102. 1854
Carex Jamesii Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 3: 398. 1836. (Type from "Rocky Mountains." Not C.
Jamesii Schw. 1824. Carex Jamesii var. Olney, in S. Wats. Bot. King's Ivxpl. 368. 1871. (Based on C. nebraskensis
Dewey.) Carex Jamesii var. nebraskensis L. H. Bailey, Cat. N. Am. Car. Suppl. 1. 1884. (Based on C
nebraskensis Dewey.) Carex nebraskensis var. praevia L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1 : 49. 1889. (Based on C. Ja?nesii
Torr.) Carex nebraskensis var. ultriformis L. H. Bailey, Bot. Gaz. 21: 8. 1896. (Type from Ritzville,
Washington.) Carex jacintoensis Parish. Bull. So. Calif. Acad. 4: 110. pi. 16. 1905. (Type from San Jacinto
Mountains, California.) Carex Jamesii var. iillriformis "L. H. Bailey" Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 318. 1909.
(Based on C. nebraskensis var. ultriformis Bailey.)
Cespitose and strongly stoloniferous, the stolons long, horizontal, stout, light-brown or straw-colored, scaly, the culms 2.5-12 dm. high, strict, stout or slender above, papillate, sharply triangular, from shorter than to exceeding the leaves, usually roughened above but sometimes smooth, brownish or sometimes more or less purplish-red-tinged at base, strongly phyllopodic, the dried-up leaves of the previous year very conspicuous; sterile shoots phyllopodic; leaves with well-developed blades usually 8-15 to a fertile culm, on the lower third, usually prominently septate-nodulose, the blades flat or channeled towards base, light-green or even glaucous-green, thick, firm, puncticulate, ascending to widely spreading, long-tapering or short-tapering, usually 1-4 dm. long, 3-8 mm. wide, roughened towards apex, the sheaths smooth dorsally, dull-white or slightly yellowish-brown-tinged ventrally, the ligule as long as wide ; staminate spike usually one with an additional smaller one at base, more or less strongly peduncled, broadly linear, 1.5-4 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse or mucronate, brownish or purplish-black to reddish-brown with lighter midrib or center and very narrow hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 2-5, erect, the upper sessile or nearly so, the lower shortor even strongly-peduncled, all contiguous or the lower somewhat separate, oblong to cylindric, 1.5-6 cm. long, 5-9 mm. wide, very closely flowered throughout or somewhat loosely towards base, the perigynia 30-150, ascending, in many rows; lower bract leaflike, not sheathing, often dark-auricled, usually exceeding but sometimes shorter than the culm; upper bracts smaller; scales lanceolate, from obtusish to strongly acuminate, narrower than and from much shorter than to exceeding perigynia, purplish or brownish-black with lighter 1-3-nerved center and often with narrow hyaline margins; perigynia plano-convex or unequally biconvex, flattened, oblong-obovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, coriaceous, strongly many-ribbed, straw-colored, granular, red-dotted, rounded and sessile or nearly so at base, rounded and abruptly apiculate at apex, the beak 0.5-1 mm. long, bidentate, more or less dark-tipped, and subciliate within the teeth; achenes lenticular, small, nearly orbicular, 1.5 mm. long, nearly as wide, substipitate, loosely enveloped in lower half of perigynium, blackish, abruptly subapiculate, jointed with the straight, slender style; stigmas 2, slender, whitish, blackish in age.
Type locality: Nebraska Territory (Hay den).
Distribution: Meadows and swamps, South Dakota and Kansas to New Mexico, southern California, and British Columbia. A widely distributed and well-marked western species. (Specimens examined from South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California.)