Smallwing Sedge

In high montane habitats it is sometimes difficult to distinguish Carex microptera from C. haydeniana.

Plants densely cespitose. Culms 20–110 cm. Leaves: sheath adaxially white-hyaline, summits usually U-shaped, occasionally prolonged to 3 mm beyond collar; distal ligules (1–)2–3(–6) mm; blades (2–)3–7 per fertile culm, 10–50 cm × 2–5 mm. Inflorescences usually dense, light to dark brown and green, (0.8–)1.1–2.6 cm × 9.5–17.5 mm; proximal internode 0.5–3(–4) mm; 2d internode 0.5–2(–3) mm; proximal bracts scalelike or rarely leaflike, occasionally bristlelike, shorter than inflorescences. Spikes 4–10(–14), densely aggregated, individually indistinct, usually broadly ovoid, 5–9(–11) × 4.3–7 mm, base and apex rounded or sometimes acute. Pistillate scales brown, often red, purple, or coppery tinged, with pale or green midstripe, ovate, 2.4–3.5 mm, shorter than and narrower or as wide as perigynia, white margin 0–0.1 mm wide, apex acute. Perigynia ascending to spreading, green or straw colored to brown when mature, conspicuously (0–)3–8(–11)-veined abaxially, conspicuously 0–8-veined adaxially, veins usually not reaching top of achene, ovate to broadly ovate, flat except over achene or ± plano-convex because of air within, (2.8–)3.4–4.5(–5.2) × 1.1–2.4 mm, 0.3–0.5 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.2–0.5 mm wide, ciliate-serrulate at least on distal body, without metallic sheen, dull to slightly shiny; beak tip gold or red-brown to dark brown, cylindric, unwinged, at least 1 mm, ± entire for 0.2–0.6(–0.9) mm, abaxial suture inconspicuous or with white margin, distance from beak tip to achene 1.5–2.5(–2.8) mm. Achenes ovate to obovate, 1.1–1.6 × 0.7–1.2 mm, 0.3–0.5 mm thick. 2n = 80, 90.

Alta., B.C., Man., N.W.T., Sask., Yukon; Ariz., Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., N.Mex., Oreg., S.Dak., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Mexico.

Fruiting late spring–fall.

Moderately wet to dry meadows, slopes, along watercourses, disturbed habitats; 200–3400m.

Carex festivella Mackenzie; C. limnophila F. J. Hermann; C. macloviana D’Urville subsp. festivella (Mackenzie) Á. Löve & D. Löve; C. microptera var. crassinervia F. J. Hermann

Carex microptera Mackenzie, Muhlenbergia 5: 56. 1909
Very densely cespitose, the rootstocks very short, stout, black, fibrillose, the culms 3-10 dm. high, slender but strict, 2.5-4 mm. thick at base, conspicuously striate, sharply triangular above, much exceeding leaves, smooth on angles or roughened beneath head, brownish-tinged at base and clothed with the dried-up short-bladed leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless; leaves with well-developed blades 3-5 to a fertile culm, on lower third, but not bunched, the upper the longer, the blades flat, light-green, firm, 1-3 dm. long, 2-4.5 mm. wide, roughened towards apex, the sheaths tight, white-hyaline ventrally, short-prolonged beyond base of blade and continuous with ligule ; sterile shoots conspicuous, the leaves mostly clustered near apex; spikes 5-10, gynaecandrous, distinguishable, but closely bunched, forming an ovoid or suborbicular head 12-18 mm. long, 10-16 mm. thick, the spikes ovoid, 5-8 mm. long, 4—6 mm. wide, with a few inconspicuous staminate flowers at base and 15-30 closely packed ascending-spreading perigynia above in several rows, the tips ascending or somewhat spreading; lowest bracts short-awned, the upper scale-like; scales ovate-lanceolate, acute, dull-brown, with nearly obsolete lighter midrib, the margins scarcely hyaline, narrower and slightly shorter than perigynia; perigynia flattened save where distended by achene, lanceovate or lanceolate, 3.5-4.5 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, membranaceous, light-green or straw-colored, or light-brownish at maturity, very narrowly wing-margined to base, serrulate to middle, round-tapering at base, lightly several-nerved on both faces, tapering into a serrulate beak one third to one half length of body, obliquely cut dorsally, brownish-tipped, bidentate, the tip terete, not serrulate, obscurely or not at all hyaline; achenes lenticular, broadly obovoid, nearly filling perigynia at base, 1.25 mm. long, nearly 1 mm. wide, substipitate, apiculate; style slender, straight, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, slender, reddish-brown, rather short; filaments white; anthers 1.5 mm. long, white.
Type locality: Deeth, Elko County, Nevada (Heller 9067).
Distribution; Mountains, Alberta to Washington, and southward to Wyoming, Nevada, and Oregon. (Specimens examined from Alberta, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Nevada, Oregon.)

Carex festivella Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 42: 609. 1915
Carex f estiva var. viridis L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1: 51. 1889. (Type from Montana.) -" Carex f estiva Dewey" Rydb. Fl. Colo. 64, 70. 1906. (Plant from Colorado.) Carex macloviana var. slricla i. viridis " L. H. Bailey" Ktikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 M : 197. 1909. (Based on C. fcstiva var. viridis L. H. Bailey.)
Cespitose, from very short-creeping, tough, matted, blackish, fibrillose rootstocks, the culms stoutish (2.5-3.5 mm. thick) at base, slender but stiffish above, 3-10 dm. high, obtusely triangular and few-striate below, sharply triangular and somewhat roughened beneath head, exceeding leaves, aphyllopodic, light-brown at base, mostly developing and flowering same year; leaves with well-developed blades 3-5 to a fertile culm, on lower fourth, but not bunched, the blades erect, deep-green or light-green, mostly 1-2 dm. long, 2-6 mm. wide, flat, firm, the sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally, concave or truncate at orifice, thin and short-prolonged beyond base of blade and continuous with ligule; sterile shoots conspicuous, the leaves mostly clustered at the top; head ovoid or oblong-ovoid, 12-25 mm. long, 10-18 mm. thick, with 5-20 densely aggregated but distinct gynaecandrous spikes, the latter oblong-ovoid, 5-12 mm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, rounded or round-tapering at base and round-tapering at apex, the perigynia 15-30, densely arranged in many rows, appressed with erect ascending tips, the staminate flowers few; lowest bract somewhat prolonged, shorter than head, the others scale-like; scales ovate, obtuse or acutish, shining, dark-chestnut to brownish-black, with lighter poorly defined midvein and narrow hyaline margins and tip, narrower and shorter than perigynia; perigynia thin, save where distended by achene, appressed, ovate, 3.75-5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, membranaceous, light-green or stramineous, the edges brownishtinged and beak strongly dark-tinged, lightly several-nerved dorsally, 3-4-nerved mostly towards base ventrally, rounded at base, strongly wing-margined to base, serrulate to middle, tapering into a beak half the length of body, hyaline-tipped, terete and not serrulate at tip, obliquely cut dorsally, bidentate; achenes lenticular, obovoid, 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, substipitate, apiculate; style slender, straight, jointed with achene, tardily deciduous; stigmas two, slender, light-yellowish-brown; filaments white; anthers 2.5 mm. long, white.
Type locality: Albany County, Wyoming (A. Nelson 3275). '
Distribution: Meadows and open slopes, mostly in the mountains, in calcareous districts, Manitoba and the Black Hills of South Dakota to eastern British Columbia, and southward to Chihuahua and the Sierra Nevada of California. (Specimens examined from Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Chihuahua.)

Carex microptera is a species of sedge known by the common name smallwing sedge. It is native to western North America, including most all of western Canada and the western United States. It occurs in moist mountain habitat such as meadows and riverbanks. This sedge produces dense clumps of erect stems over 20 centimeters tall and up to about a meter in height. The inflorescence is a dense cluster of green or brown spikes packed tightly and indistinct from each other.