A. A. Reznicek & Paul M. Catling

Vignea [unranked] Chordorrhizae Heuffel, Flora 27: 529. 1844

Plants not cespitose, short-rhizomatous, long-stoloniferous. Culms brown at base. Leaves: basal sheaths not fibrous; sheath fronts membranous; blades M-shaped in cross section when young, widest more than 1 mm wide, glabrous. Inflorescences capitate or short-ovoid; bracts scalelike, sheathless; spikes 2–7, androgynous, sessile, without prophylls. Proximal pistillate scales with apex obtuse to short-acuminate. Perigynia ascending, strongly veined on both faces, stipitate, oblong-ovate to broadly elliptic, plano-convex to unequally biconvex in cross section, 2–4(–4.5 mm), base rounded, with spongy tissue, margins rounded, apex rounded, abruptly beaked, glabrous; beak 0.3–0.6 mm, less than 1/5 length of body, with abaxial suture, entire or sparsely serrulate, emarginate. Stigmas 2. Achenes biconvex, only slightly smaller than bodies of perigynia; style deciduous.

Species 1: North America, Eurasia.

Lower Taxon

• Carex chordorrhiza Linnaeus f.