David F. Murray

Carex sect. Callistachys (Heuffel) Ascherson & Graebner

Plants loosely or densely cespitose, short-rhizomatous; rhizomes dark brown, stout, sometimes inconspicuous. Culms brown at base. Leaves: basal sheaths not fibrous; sheath fronts membranous; blades V-shaped in cross section when young, 1.5–4 mm wide, glabrous. Inflorescences a solitary spike; bracts absent; spike androgynous. Proximal pistillate scales deciduous before perigyinia, apex obtuse to acute. Perigynia erect but eventually spreading, proximal somewhat reflexed at maturity, veinless, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, rounded-trigonous to biconvex, 3–5 mm, base rounded and stipitate, margins rounded, apex tapering to gradually formed beak, somewhat glossy, glabrous; beak less than 2 mm including teeth, obliquely cleft, sometimes slightly bidentate. Stigmas (2–)3. Achenes usually trigonous, smaller than bodies of perigynia; style deciduous.

Species 5 (2 in the flora): North America, Eurasia.

Lower Taxa

• Carex micropoda C. A. Meyer
• Carex nigricans C. A. Meyer