Bear Sedge

Carex arcta Boott, 111. Carex 155. pi. I"T. 1867
1 2:344. 1851. (Type from wi item irfo Carex Kunsei Olney, Carii Boi Km 9 Mr 1872; it Gray, Pro Im lead B: KK>. My 1X72. .•nirh cha"C. A. Meyei Curat Suppl Riedgr., a to Hall's plant only; not
rrfnnii l. ll. Bailey, Mem Torrey i lub I: 75. I rom Portland,
ton j
( arex Hrleun . , Kllkenfll III Engler. Pll.ill/eliri i' li 4'": 2 I i Iri. Til
Mi Adams, Washu .
Densely cespitose. the root I iiort, black, fibrillo e, tbi Im high. sharply triangular with concave sides, slender but strict, very rough on the angles above, usually strongly exceeded by the long leaves, light-brown at base and conspicuously clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year; leaves with well-developed blades 5-10 to a fertile culm, bunched towards the base, the blades 1.5-4 dm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, light-green, flat, not stiff, very rough towards the long-attenuate apex, the sheaths hyaline and very thin ventrally, not prolonged beyond base of blade, the ligule about as long as wide, the lower sheaths conspicuously purplish-dotted ventrally and loose; inflorescence consisting of 5-15 gynaecandrous, greenish or brownish-yellow-tinged spikes, closely aggregated into an ovoidoblong or oblong head 1.5-3 cm. long, 7-12 mm. thick, the upper spikes hardly recognizable, the lower well differentiated and often slightly separated, oblong, 5-10 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, obtuse at both ends, the staminate basal flowers very inconspicuous, the 10-20 perigynia spreading-ascending, the beaks not very conspicuous; lower one or two bracts developed and from much shorter than to much longer than the head; upper bracts scale-like, cuspidatepointed ; scales ovate, short-cuspidate to obtusish, hyaline with a sharp green center, the midvein usually more or less strongly brownish-tinged, about width of but rather shorter than perigynia; perigynia plano-convex, ovate, 2-3 mm. long, 1.1-1.5 mm. wide, greenish-strawcolored or brownish at maturity, thickish, membranaceous, densely white-punctate, widest near the broad truncate base, wingless but slightly sharp-edged, strongly several-nerved dorsally, more obscurely several-nerved ventrally, short-stipitate, spongy at base, gradually tapering into a medium-sized (0.75 mm. long) flat beak, strongly serrulate, obliquely cut dorsally, bidentate, the orifice reddish-brown-tinged ; achenes lenticular, closely enveloped, ovate, 1.5 mm. long, 0.8 mm. wide, substipitate, short-apiculate, brownish; style slender, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, dark-reddish-brown, slender, short.
Type locality (of C. canescens var. polystachya Boott, on which C. arcta is based): "In America boreali, Canada. Lake Superior, Rainy Lake. Lake of the Woods."
Distribution: Swampy woods and thickets, Quebec and New Brunswick to British Columbia, and southward to Massachusetts, New York, Minnesota, and extreme northern California. (Specimens examined from New Brunswick, Quebec, Maine, New Hampshire. Vermont, New York, Ontario. Michigan, Wisconsin. Minnesota, Montana, Alberta. Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia.)