Sheldon's Sedge

Culms trigonous in cross section, 40–80 cm. Leaves: basal sheaths reddish purple, inner bands slightly fibrillose with age; sheaths pubescent, at least at apex of inner band; ligules 2–9 mm; blades 2.5–6 mm wide, finely spreading-pubescent or glabrous, not papillose abaxially. Inflorescences 15–50 cm; spikes erect or ascending; proximal (1–)2–3 spikes pistillate; terminal 1–4 spikes staminate. Pistillate scales narrowly ovate, apex acute to acuminate, scabrous-awned, scabrous near midrib, otherwise glabrous. Staminate scales lanceolate to narrowly ovate, apex obtuse to acuminate, awnless, glabrous or sparsely ± appressed-pubescent near apex. Perigynia 12–18-veined, 4.8–6.5 × 1.4–2.4 mm, sparsely to densely pubescent; beak 1.4–2.6 mm, pubescent, teeth spreading, (0.4–)0.6–1.4 mm.

Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg.

Fruiting Jun–Sep.

Wet meadows, lakeshores, open, moist forests along streams; 1200–1900m.

Carex sheldonii Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 42: 618. 1915
Loosely cespitose and strongly stoloniferous, the stolons long, horizontal, stout, tough, scaly, the culms 5-10 dm. high, erect, phyllopodic, exceeding the elongate leaves, stout at base, glabrous, obtusely angled and very smooth below inflorescence, brownish and not fibrillose at base; sterile shoots elongate, the leaves largely bunched at the summit; leaves with welldeveloped blades about 4 to a fertile culm, on lower half, not bunched, the sheaths and surfaces of blades (especially lower) sparsely short-pubescent, the blades flat, thin, light-green, 2-4 dm. long (or on sterile culms much longer), 3.5-6 mm. wide, rough toward apex, the sheaths thin and more or less yellowish-brown-tinged ventrally, concave at mouth, the basal breaking and slightly filamentose, the ligule about as long as or longer than wide; staminate spikes 2 or 3, separate from each other and widely separate from the pistillate, the upper peduncled, the peduncle rough, the others sessile, linear, 2-3.5 cm. long, 3 mm. wide, the scales oblanceolate, acute or acuminate, erose at apex, not ciliate or but little so, in age straw-colored and hyaline, the bract of the lowest often conspicuous; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, widely separate, erect, sessile or short-exsert-peduncled (the peduncle smooth), oblong-cylindric, 2-5 cm. long, 8-10 mm. wide, the perigynia 25-60, ascending in several to many rows, closely packed or the lower somewhat loosely arranged ; bracts leaf-like, the lower sheathing and exceeding inflorescences, the upper smaller, nearly sheathless; scales ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, cuspidate, or awned, purplish-brown with green and strongly 3-5 -nerved center and hyaline margins or in age straw-colored, narrower and shorter than the perigynia; perigynia lanceolate, 5-6 mm. long, about 2 mm. wide, obscurely triangular, little inflated, short-pubescent, subcoriaceous, prominently about 15-ribbed, green, becoming straw-colored or brownish, rounded at base, sessile, tapering into a purplish-red-tipped beak 2 mm. long, the orifice obliquely cut and more or less bidentate, the teeth 0.75-1 mm. long, slightly spreading or spreading; achenes oblong-obovoid, 2.25 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, obtusely triangular with slightly concave sides, loosely enveloped, yellowish-brown, short-stipitate, continuous with the slender, straight, persistent style; stigmas 3, slender, long, blackish.
Type locality: Clark's Creek, Oregon {Sheldon 8854).
Distribution: Marshes, Idaho to Utah, Oregon, and northeastern California. (Specimens examined from Idaho, Utah, Oregon, northeastern California.)

Carex sheldonii is a species of sedge known by the common name Sheldon's sedge.