Carex obscura Nees

Fl. Per.: April–August. Reported by R.R.Stewart (l.c. 81, 1972) from Chitral, Hazara and Kashmir. According to R. R. Stewart (l.c., 1972) this species is common in Pakistan (Chitral, Hazara) and Kashmir, but Dickoré (1995) does not record it from Kashmir.

Perennial, 20-50 cm. Rhizome sturdy, ascending, scales grey or dark brown, disintegrating into fibres. Stem sharply trigonous, sides in upper part often concave, edges smooth or scabrous. Leaves equal to or overtopping stem; sheaths 20-50 mm, chestnut brown, disintegrating into fibres, margin of scarious side concave; ligule c. 0.3 mm, slightly arched; blades 3.5-4.5 mm wide, flat, keeled, margins slightly revolute, scabrous towards long-acuminate apex. Inflorescence of 1 male or gynecandrous spike and 3-6 female spikes below; bracts to much overtopping inflorescence, sheath-less; male glumes c. 3.9 x 2.4 mm, obovate or elliptic, dark reddish brown, apex rounded, mucronate and sometimes with a narrowly scarious margin; female spikes 10-32 x 4-5 mm, closely overlapping, cylindrical or ellipsoid, sessile or lowest remote with peduncle to 25 mm; female glumes 1.8-2.5 x 1.4-1.5 mm, elliptic, acute or with mucro up to 0.3 mm, dark reddish brown, papillose, occasionally scabrous; utricles 2.2-2.7 x 1-1.3 mm, ellipsoid to obovoid, obscurely nerved, yellowish green, papillose and occasionally scabrous, beak 0.2-0.3 mm, conical or cylindrical, truncate or shallowly bidentate, papillose, nerves scabrous. Stigmas 3. Nut 2.8 x 2 mm, incl. style base up to 0.3 mm, ellipsoid or obovoid, trigonous, yellowish brown, reticulate with papilla in each areole.

Distribution: From Chitral to Sikkim and Xizang.

Meadows in mountain slopes from 2500 to 3500 m.

Carex obscura is a tussock-forming species of perennial sedge in the family Cyperaceae. It is native to parts of Asia from Pakistan in the west to China in the east.

It was described by the botanist Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck in 1834 as published in Contributions to the Botany of India.