Weak Arctic Sedge

Temperate and northern-temperate Eurasia as well as western Himalaya. The collection cited above marks the range extension of this species into Nepal.

4900-5700 m

Carex supina Wilid.; Wahl. Sv. Vet.-Akad Nya Handl. 24: 158. 1803.
Carex glomcrala Roth, Fl. Germ. 1: 397. 1788. (Misprint, see 2': 442. 1793; intended for Carex
globularis L., a misidentification.) Carex Schktihrii Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 264. 1805. ("Habitat ad mare Caspium.") Carex sphaerocarpa Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 265. 1805. ("Habitat ad mare Caspium.") Carex campeslris Host, Gram. Austr. 4: 49. pi. S8. 1809. (Type from Moravia, Austria.) Carex coslala Presl, Fl. Cech. 191. 1819. (Type from Bohemia.)
"Carex oligocarpa Willd." J. Vahl; Hornem. Fl. Dan. 37: 5. pi. 2181. 1836. (Specimen from Greenland.) Edritria supina Raf. Good Book 26. 1840. (Based on Carex supina Willd.) Edritria Schkuhrii Raf. Good Book 26. 1840. (Based on Carex Schkuhrii Willd.) "Carex mucronala All." Trev. in Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 4: 308, in part. 1853. Carex spaniocarpa Steud. Syn. Cyp. 225. 1855. (Greenland; based on Fl. Dan. pi. "2176"; error
for 2181.) "Carex obtusata Lilj." Garcke, Verh. Bot. Ver. Prov. Brand. 3-4: 157. 1862.
Carex obtusata var. spicata Asch. Fl. Brand. 1 : 779. 1864. (As to plant described only; from Brandenburg, Germany.) Carex obesa var. minor Boott, 111. Carex 4: 161, 162. pi. 535. 1867. (Based primarily on C. supina
Willd.) Carex obesa var. minor Bock. Linnaea 41: 184. 1877. (Based on C. supina Willd.) Carex supina f. pallida Bubela; Obomy, Verh. Nat. Ver. Brunn 21': 185. 1882. (Type from Moravia.) Carex obtusata var. supina Garcke, Fl. Deuts. ed. 16. 469. 1890. (Based on C. supina Willd.) Carex supina f. humilior Behrendsen; Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 2: 89. 1896. (Type from Germany.) Carex supina f. elatior Behrendsen; Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 2: 89. 1896. (Type from Germany.) Carex supina lusus pseudomonostachys Asch. Verh. Bot. Ver. Prov. Brand. 39: xli. 1898. (Type from Brandenburg, Germany.)
Cespitose and stoloniferous, the stolons long, horizontal, brownish, scaly, the clumps medium-sized, the culms slender, 0.5-3 dm. high, erect, smooth or nearly so, usually considerably exceeding the leaves, aphyllopodic, brownish-red, often fibrillose at base; leaves with well-developed blades 4-10 to a culm, clustered towards the base, not septate-nodulose, the blades flat above, channeled towards base, 4-15 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, dull-green, thin but stiff, roughened, especially towards the long-attenuate apex, the sheaths tight, concave at mouth, the ligule as long as wide; staminate spike solitary, sessile or short-peduncled, linear, erect, 6-25 mm. long, 2-2.5 mm. wide, the scales ovate to obovate, acute to obtusish, reddishbrown with straw-colored 3-nerved center and broad whitish-hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 1 or 2, sessile, approximate, suborbicular or short-oblong, 4-12 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, closely flowered, containing 4-15 ascending or at maturity spreading perigynia in several rows; lowest bract sheathless, squamiform, short-prolonged, hyaline-margined at base, shorter than the spike, the upper bract much reduced; scales broadly ovate, reddish-brown, with straw-colored three-nerved center and conspicuous white-hyaline margins, short-cuspidate to obtusish, wider than and nearly as long as the mature perigynia; perigynia obovoid, obscurely triangular in cross-section, not inflated, coriaceous, hard, shining, 2-ribbed, nerveless or obscurely fewnerved, yellowish-brown or in age dark-brown, puncticulate, 2.5-3.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, substipitate, rounded at base, rather abruptly contracted at apex into a beak 0.75 mm. long, smooth, cylindric, entire or at length shallowly bidentate, with white-hyaline, obliquely cleft orifice; achenes obovoid, closely enveloped, 2 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, triangular with blunt angles and convex sides, yellowish-brown, puncticulate, short-stipitate, tapering at base, abruptly short-apiculate, jointed with the short, straight style, slightly thickened at base; stigmas three, long, slender, reddish-brown.
Type locality: "Habitat in saxosis apricis Germaniae, Austriae, Tyrolis." (Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 265.)
Distribution: Greenland to Mackenzie; reported from Minnesota and Saskatchewan; also in Eurasia. (Specimens examined from Greenland, Mackenzie.)

Carex supina, called the weak arctic sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the genus Carex, native to Alaska, western and central Canada, Minnesota, Greenland, central and eastern Europe, the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Siberia, the Himalaya, the Amur region, Manchuria, and Korea. It is often found in association with Festuca altaica and Poa glauca.