Carex rufina Drejer

Carex rufina Drejer, Nat. Tidssk. 3: 446. 1841
Loosely cespitose, the rootstocks slender, brownish, scaly, ascending obliquely, sparingly branching above, the culms few together, 2-8 cm. high, slender, often curved, compressedtriangular, smooth, not papillate, much shorter than the leaves, brownish at base, strongly phyllopodic, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; sterile shoots conspicuous, aphyllopodic, lateral; leaves of the flowering year with well-developed blades 4-6 to a flowering culm, on lower three fourths, not septate-nodulose, the blades 1-8 cm. long, 0.5-1.5 mm. wide, flat above, channeled towards base, soft, yellowish-green, short-attenuate, sparingly roughened at apex only, the sheaths rather loose, smooth, whitish ventrally, truncate at mouth, the ligule wider than long; spikes 3 or 4 (rarely 5), erect, approximate and subsessile, or the lowest more or less remote and peduncled, the terminal gynaecandrous (rarely entirely staminate), the lateral entirely pistillate, short-oblong to oblong, 6-10 mm. long, 4.5 mm. wide, densely flowered, the perigynia 8-20, appressed-erect in several rows; lowest 1 or 2 bracts leaf-like, biauriculate, exceeding culm, short-sheathing and dark-reddish-brown-tinged at base; upper bracts squamiform, much reduced; scales closely appressed, obovate, obtuse, as wide as and slightly shorter than perigynia, shining, purplish-brown, with lighter midvein or center not extending to apex; perigynia obovoid, 2-2.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, very strongly flattened, unequally biconvex, the marginal perigynia 2-ribbed, all obsoletely very slenderly nerved, light-green or yellowish-green or somewhat glaucous-green, puncticulate, glabrous, the upper margin sparingly serrulate, round-truncate at base, stipitate, abruptly apiculate, the beak 0.1-0.2 mm. long, slightly emarginate, purple-tinged; achenes lenticular, closely enveloped, filling lower three fourths of perigynium, ovoid-orbicular, 1.25-1.5 mm. long, nearly as wide, yellowish-brown, puncticulate, sessile, apiculate, jointed with the short, slender, included style; stigmas two, slender, short.
TvPE ixjcalitv: "In locis irrigatis glareosis ad limilem maris orae oricntalis Groenlandiae (60° — 60° 28'J: etiam in sinu Godlhaab alt. circitcr 300' supra mare legit J. Vahl." (Fl. Dan.) Distribution: High northern sections of Greenland, Lapland and Norway. (Specimens examined from Greenland.)