Carex raynoldsii
Tanya Harvey

Flora of Oregon

Plants cespitose, often loosely so, 20–75 cm tall.

Leaves 3–7 mm wide.

Inflorescences spikes 3–6, erect to ascending, usually overlapping and clustered near the tip of the culm, but sometimes the lowest remote; lateral spikes on short stalks, female, 1–2 cm × 3–5 mm; terminal spike male.

Female scales shorter than or as long as the perigynia, narrower than the perigynia at least above, dark brown or blackish, the margin and sometimes the midvein lighter, mostly acute (but varying from obtuse to acuminate).

Perigynia elliptic or obovate, unusually thick and swollen, (3)3.3–4.5 × 1.75–2 mm, greenish yellow to yellow-brown, sometimes gray, often orange-brown above, contrasting with the darker female scales; beak 0.3–0.5 mm long; stigmas 3.

Achenes trigonous, 1.8–2.4 mm long, nearly filling the perigynium bodies.

2n=58.

Moist to dry meadows, often associated with seeps, in mountains to near timberline. 1300–2800 m. BR, BW, Casc, ECas. CA, ID, NV, WA; north to British Columbia, east to CO. Native.

Carex raynoldsii is a cespitose sedge with short spikes that contain plump, often orangish perigynia and contrasting dark scales. The achenes are large, nearly filling the perigynium bodies.

Flora of North America

as described under Carex raynoldsii

Plants cespitose. Culms 20-75 cm, smooth. Leaves 3-7 mm wide. Inflorescences: proximal bracts shorter than or exceeding inflorescences; spikes separate, short-oblong or elongate, 10-20 × 3-5 mm, of similar length; proximal spikes often divergent to pendent, long-pendunculate; distal spikes divergent or erect, short-pendunculate; lateral 2-4 spikes pistillate; terminal spike staminate. Pistillate scales brown or black, margins hyaline, lanceolate, shorter than or equaling and narrower than perigynia, midvein same color as body, inconspicuous or lighter colored and conspicuous, often raised, prominent, apex acute or short-mucronate. Perigynia ascending, spreading, greenish yellow or yellow-brown, veined, broadly elliptic or obovate, 3.5-4.5 × 1.75-2 mm, apex abruptly beaked, smooth; beak 0.3-0.5 mm, bidentate, smooth. Achenes nearly filling body of perigynia. 2n = 58.Fruiting Jun-Aug. Subalpine and alpine meadows; 1000-3200 m; Alta., B.C., Sask.; Calif., Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Oreg., Utah, Wash., Wyo.

Photo images

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Herbarium specimens

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https://www.pnwherbaria.org/images/thumbnail.php?Image=IDS0003662.jpg