Grassyslope Sedge

Culms trigonous, not filiform or wiry, angles proximal to spike blunt or sharp, 10–50 cm, usually longer than leaves. Leaves: basal leaf sheaths ± fibrillose when old; blades light to bright green, folded or channeled, not quill-shaped, 5–15 cm, (0.7–)1–2 mm wide near base. Spike 17–40 × 4–6.5 mm; staminate portion 10–16(–20) mm. Proximal pistillate scales golden-brown (cream-colored) with white margins to 1.2 mm wide or cream-colored throughout, orbiculate, 3–5.5 × 2–3.5 mm, shorter than mature perigynia, apex obtuse to awned. Staminate scales gold with white margins, oblong-lanceolate, apex obtuse to acute. Perigynia 3–15, erect to appressed, white to gold, broadly obovate to broadly ovate, 3–4.5 × 1.4–2.2 mm, body hirsute or puberulent at least proximal to beak; beak (0.4–)0.5–1 mm; rachilla present. Achenes obovate to elliptic, 2.2–2.6(–3) × 1.2–1.9 mm. Stigmas ± black.

Colo., Wyo.; Mexico (Coahuila).

Fruiting spring–summer.

Dry slopes in granitic soils; 2200–3300m.

Carex oreocharis var. enantiomorpha Kelso

Carex oreocharis Holm, Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 9: 358; 357. /. 2. 1900.
Carex filifolia var. Boott. Proc. Acad. Phila. 1863: 77. 1863. (Type from Colorado.) Carex filifolia var. valida Olney; L. H. Bailey, in Coult. Man. 374. 1885. (Based on C filifolia var. Boott, supra.)
Densely cespitose, the rootstock very short, stout, fibrillose, blackish, the culms 1-3.5 dm. high, stiff, stoutish, slenderly sulcate, terete below, obtusely or sharply triangular above, and from smooth to much roughened, exceeding the leaves, brownish-black at base, the old leaves of the previous year conspicuous and the basal sheaths slightly filamentose ; leaves of the year 2 or 3 to a culm, bunched near the base, the blades thickish, light-green, 5-15 cm. long, or longer on the sterile shoots, 1.5-2 mm. wide and flattened-canaliculate towards base, deeply channeled above, attenuate, roughened towards apex, the sheaths very thin ventrally and oblique at mouth, the ligule very short; spike solitary, androgj'nous, 2-4 cm. long, the staminate part very conspicuous, 1-2 cm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, many -flowered, the staminate scales oblonglanceolate, obtuse or acutish, light-yellowish-straw-colored with hyaline margins and lighter midvein, the pistillate part 4—6.5 mm. wide, with 3-10 erect-appressed perigynia, some or all of the lower scales empty; scales broadly orbicular, wider and partly enveloped but much shorter than the perigj'nia, broadly ovate or orbicular, obtuse or cuspidate, light-yellowish with conspicuous white-hyaline margins and several-nerved greenish center, the lowest scale usually conspicuously awned and bract-like; perigynia oblong-obovoid, obtusely triangular in cross-section, 4-4.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, membranaceous, yello%vish-green, substipitate, round-tapering at base, obscurely 2-ribbed, otherwise nerveless, short-pubescent above, contracted into a beak nearly 1 mm. long, cylindric, hyaline-tipped, obliquely cut; achenes triangular, closely enveloped, 3 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, yellowish, the sides convex, tapering Vart 4. 19351 CYPERACEAE 179
at base, apiculate: style short, black, thick, jointed with achene, not exserted; stigmas three, short, blackish: rachilla setaceous, green, short.
Type locality: (of C.filifolia var. valida Olney, on which C. oreocharls is based): Colorado. Distribution: Colorado. (Specimens examined from Colorado.)