Lesser Brown Sedge

Plants densely cespitose. Culms 25–80 cm. Leaves: sheaths adaxially hyaline, often green-veined nearly to collar, summits U- or V-shaped or rounded, sometimes prolonged to 1.5 mm beyond collar; distal ligules 1–4 mm; blades 2–5 per fertile culm, 7–25 cm × 2–3.5 mm. Inflorescences stiffly erect, dense or open, greenish brown to gold, 2–4.5 cm × 12–20 mm; proximal internode 2–15 mm; 2d internode 2.5–5 mm; proximal bracts leaflike, much longer than inflorescence, or bristlelike. Spikes 5–8(–11), usually distinct, broadly ovoid, 8–11 × 5–8 mm, base and apex acute to rounded. Pistillate scales reddish brown, with paler center, ovate to broadly ovate, 4–5.5 mm, equaling, ± covering perigynia, hyaline margin absent or to 0.2 mm, apex acute to mucronate. Perigynia ascending to spreading, green, gold, or cream colored, conspicuously 7–11-veined abaxially, conspicuously 0(–2)-veined adaxially, ovate to broadly ovate, plano-convex to biconvex, 4–5 × 1.9–2.5 mm, 0.7–1.1 mm thick, margin flat, including wing 0.2–0.6 mm wide, often thickened; beak gold at tip, flat, ciliate-serrulate, abaxial suture usually inconspicuous, distance from beak tip to achene 1.7–2 mm. Achenes obovate to elliptic, 2.1–2.5 × 1.6–2 mm, 0.7–1 mm thick. 2n = 78.

Alta., B.C., Man., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que., Sask.; Maine, Mich., Minn., N.Y., Wis.

Fruiting spring–summer.

Dry, acidic, sandy soils of open woods and clearings, moist shores; 0–400m.

Carex adusta Boott, in Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 215. 1839,
Carex albolulescens var. glomerata Olney (Caric. Bor. -Am. 10, name only. 1871); L. H. Bailey, Hot. Gaz. 9: 139, as synonym. 1884. (Type from New Brunswick.)
Carex adusia var. glomerata L. H. Bailey, (Cat. N. Am. Car. 2, name only. 1884) Bot. Gaz. 9: 139. 1884. (Based on C. albohttescens var. glo-meraia Olney.)
Carex pinguis L. H. Bailey; Arth. Bull. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv. Minn. 3: 22. 1887. (Based on C. adusta var. glomerata L. H. Bailey.)
Cespitose, the rootstocks very short, blackish, fibrillose, the culms strict and stiff, erect, 2-8 dm. high, noticeably exceeding the leaves, obtusely triangular, smooth (except slightly roughened immediately beneath head), brownish-tinged at base and conspicuously clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless; leaves with well-developed blades 4-7 to a fertile culm, on the lower fourth, the blades erect or ascending, usually 5-20 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, flat or slightly canaliculate, light-green or yellowish-green, rather stiff, roughened towards the apex and on the margins above, the sheaths tight, conspicuously striate dorsally, narrowly white-hyaline ventrally, thin and truncate at mouth, slightly yellowish-brown-tinged, conspicuously prolonged beyond base of blade and continuous with ligule; sterile shoots with several similar leaves; spikes 4-15, aggregated into a heavy, stiff, erect, ovoid to linear-oblong head 2-3 cm. long, 7-15 mm. thick, the lower one or two spikes somewhat separate, the spikes gynaecandrous, subglobose, ascending, 6-12 mm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, obtuse at apex, rounded or (especially uppermost) short-clavate at base, the basal staminate flowers inconspicuous e.xcept in uppermost, the perigynia several to many, appressedascending or in age looser; lowermost bract broadly dilated and nerved at base, cuspidateprolonged, shorter than to exceeding the head, the second much shorter, the upper scale-like; scales broadly ovate, acute to acuminate, light-reddish-brown with 3-nerved lighter center and narrow white-hyaline margin, as wide and as long as and concealing the perigynia ; perigynia thick-plano-convex, oblong-ovate, 4-5 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, coriaceous, olive-green or in age blackish, shining, narrowly wing-margined nearly to base, serrulate to above middle, strongly several-nerved dorsally, several-nerved at base ventrally, short-stipitate, roundtruncate at base, rather abruptly narrowed into a beak about one third the length of the whole, flat, serrulate, obliquely cut dorsally, bidentate, yellowish-brown-tinged; achenes lenticular, 2.25 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, apiculate, substipitate, brown, shining, thick, obovate, suborbicular; style short, slender, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, reddishbrown, slender.
Type locauitv: "Hab. Common in British America. Dr. Richardson. Drumtnond. Rocky Mountains. Drummond. N. W. Coast. Douglas."
Distribution: Dry acid soils, Newfoundland to southern Maine and northern New York, and westward to Minnesota, Saskatchewan, and Mackenzie; adventized locally in British Columbia. (Specimens examined from Newfoundlanfi, Quebec, New Brunswick, Maine, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Saskatchewan, British Columbia.)

Carex adusta, commonly known as the lesser brown sedge or the browned sedge, is a species of sedge (Carex) in the section Ovales. First described scientifically in 1839 by Francis Boott, it is found in Canada and the northeastern United States, where it grows in dry, acidic, sandy soils. Adusta is Latin for "burnt," probably referring to the color.