Western Inflated Sedge

Carex exsiccata L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1: 6. 1889
Carex vesicaria var. major Boott, in Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2 : 221. 1839. (Type from Columbia River.) Carex vesicaria var. Boott, 111. Carex 162, name only. pi. 537. 1867. (Type from Saturna Island,
northwestern America.) Carex vesicaria var. lanceolata Olney; A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 8: 407. 1872. (Type from Oregon.) Carex vesicaria var. globosa Olney, A. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 8: 408, name only. 1872. (Type from
Oregon.) Carex exsiccata var. globosa L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1 : 7. 1889. (Based on C. vesicaria var.
globosa Olney.) Carex exsiccata var. pungens L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1: 7. 1889. (Type from Vancouver
Island.) Carex vesicaria var. major f. globosa Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 727. 1909. (Based on C.
vesicaria var. globosa Olney.) Carex vesicaria var. major f. pungens Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 727. 1909. (Based on
C. exsiccata var. pungens L. H. Bailey.)
Cespitose, the rootstocks short-creeping, stout, tough, the culms 3-10 dm. high, stout, erect, exceeded by upper leaves, acutely triangular, roughened or smooth above, purplish-redtinged at base, the basal blades more or less strongly developed, the sheaths easily breaking and becoming sparingly filamentose; sterile shoots elongate, the leaf -blades erect; leaves with well-developed blades usually 4-8 to a fertile culm, the lower clustered, the upper scattered, more or less strongly septate-nodulose, usually 2-3 dm. long, 3-7 mm. wide, the blades flat, with more or less revolute margins, green, firm, rough on the margins and towards the apex, sometimes hispidulous above near base, the sheaths more or less yellowish-brown-tinged ventrally, concave or truncate at mouth, the ligule variable, about as long as wide to much longer than wide ; staminate spikes 2 or 3, linear, the uppermost peduncled, the others sessile, the more developed 2-4.5 cm. long, 2.5-4 mm. wide, the scales linear-oblanceolate or obovate, obtuse to acuminate, light-brownish with lighter midrib and hyaline apex and upper margins; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, usually strongly separate from the staminate spikes and more or less strongly from one another, erect on very short peduncles or sessile, the peduncles slender, roughish, the spikes cylindric, or narrowly oblong, 2-7.5 cm. long, 12-18 mm. wide, heavy, containing 20-60 closely packed, ascending-spreading perigynia in several to many rows; bracts leaf-like, not sheathing, exceeding inflorescence; scales lanceolate, acuminate to shortawned, light-brownish with lighter 3-nerved center and hyaline margins, narrower than and about one third or one half as long as the perigynia; perigynia lanceolate, 7-10 mm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, moderately inflated, roundish in cross-section, submembranaceous, smooth, shining, yellowish-green or at maturity strongly brownish-tinged, strongly severalto manyribbed, rounded and substipitate or sessile at base, tapering into the slender, conic, smooth, bidentate beak 2-3 mm. long, the teeth erect, stiff, and 0.75-1.5 mm. long, roughened within; achenes small, obovoid or ovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, triangular with blunt angles and sides somewhat concave below, not excavated in middle, loosely enveloped, yellowish, substipitate, contracted at apex into and continuous with the long, slender, persistent, abruptly bent style; stigmas 3, slender, blackish, rather short.
Type locality (of C. vesicaria var. major Boott, on which C. exsiccata is based): Columbia River (Douglas; Scolder).
Distribution: Marshes or swamps, middle California northward to southeastern Alaska and

Carex exsiccata, the western inflated sedge or beaked sedge (a name it shares with other members of its genus), is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyperaceae, native to British Columbia, Washington state, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, and California. Native peoples used its roots to make a black dye.