Long Stalked Yellow Sedge

Carex lepidocarpa Tausch, Flora 17: 179. 1834
"Carexflava L." Schkuhr. Riedgr. 72, in part. pi. H,f. 36. 1801. '■Carex flava L." Host, Gram. Austr. 1 : 48. pi. 63, f. 4. 1801. Carex lipsiensis Peterm. Fl. Lips. 58. 1838. (Type from Leipzig, Germany.) Carex flava var. lepidocarpa Godr. Fl. Loir. 3: 118. 1844. (Based on C. lepidocarpa Tausch.) Carex flava var. minor Peterm. Flora 27: 338. 1844. (Type from Leipzig, Germany.) Carex flava var. laevigata Peterm. Flora 27: 338. 1844. (Type from Leipzig, Germany.) Carex flava var. intermedia Coss. & Germ. Fl. Paris 602. 1845. (Type from France.) Carex Marssoni Auersw. Bot. Zeit 10: 409. 1852. (Type from Germany.) Carex pvriformis F. Schultz, Pollichia 15 : 122. 1857. (Type from Germany.)
Carex Oederi major Bochkoltz, Verh. Bot. Ver. Prov. Brand. 3/4: 287. 1862. (Type from Germany.) Carex flava b. brachyrhyncha Celak. Prodr. Fl. Bohm. 71. 1867.
Carex flava var. Marssoni Marsson, Fl. Neu-Vorpomm. 537. 1869. (Based on C. Marssoni Auersw.) Carex flava f. lepidocarpa Olney, Caric. Bor.-Am. 5. 1871. (Based on C. lepidocarpa Tausch.) Carex lepidocarpa var. pseudolepidocarpa Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 5: 9. 1899. (Type from
Baden, Germany.) Carex lepidocarpa f. acroandra Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 5: 10. 1899. (Type from Baden, Germany.) Carex lepidocarpa f. cladostachya Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 5: 10. 1899. (Type from Baden,
Germany.) Carex lepidocarpa f. laevicuhnis Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 5: 10. 1899. (Type from Baden, Germany.) Carex lepidocarpa f. major Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 5: 10. 1899. (Type from Baden, Germany.) Carex lepidocarpa f. rectirostris Kneucker, Allg. Bot. Zeits. 5:11. 1899. (Type from Baden, Germany.) Carex lepidocarpa a sphaerostachys Neuman, Sv. Fl. 696. 1901. Carex lepidocarpa cvlindrostachys Neuman, Sv. Fl. 696. 1901. Carex flava A. eu-flava II. lepidocarpa Asch. & Graebn. Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2*: 200. 1902. (Based
on C. lepidocarpa Tausch.) Carex flava A. eu-flava II. lepidocarpa b. intermedia Asch. & Graebn. Syn. Mitteleur. Fl. 2 2 : 200.
1902. (Based on C. flava var. intermedia Coss. & Germ.) Carex lepidocarpa f. laevigata "Peterm." Kukenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 672. 1909. (Based
on C. flava var. laevigata Peterm.) Carex lepidocarpa f. intermedia " Asch. & Graebn." Kukenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 20 : 672. 1909. (Based on C. flava var. intermedia Coss. & Germ.)
Densely cespitose, the rootstock very short-prolonged, the culms 1.5-5 dm. high, stiff, erect, leafy, usually exceeding the leaves, phyllopodic, obtusely triangular below, more sharply triangular and roughish above, brownish and more or less fibrillose at base; sterile shoots elongate, conspicuous; leaves several to a fertile culm, the lower bunched, not septate-nodulose, the blades flat or somewhat canaliculate toward base, deep-green, thickish. stiff, 0.5-2.5 dm. long, 2-3.5 mm. wide, attenuate, the sheaths dull-white ventrally, thin and truncate at mouth, the ligule short; terminal spike staminate, conspicuously long-rough-peduncled, linear, 1.5-3 cm. long, 2.5-3 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse, reddish with white-hyaline margins and 3-nerved lighter center ; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, erect, the upper more or less approximate and sessile, the lower more or less remote and short-exsert-peduncled, oblong or subglobose, 6-15 mm. long, 7-9 mm. wide, very closely 15-30-flowered, in several to many rows, the perigynia squarrose-spreading, the lower obliquely attached and conspicuously deflexed ; bracts leaf -like, more or less divaricate, the lowest strongly sheathing, the upper short-sheathing, more or less prolonged ventrally at mouth; scales ovate or obovate, obtuse or short-rough-cuspidate,
strongly reddish-tinged with greenish 3-nerved center and white-hyaline margins, narrower and much shorter than the perigynia; perigynia 4 mm. long, 1.75-2 nun. wide, the body broadly obovoid, markedly ventricose, triangular, membranaceous, dull-green, becoming yellowish, puncticulate, severalto many-ribbed, rounded at base and sessile, abruptly contracted into a serrulate, straight, conic, bidentate beak 1.5-2 mm. long, somewhat shorter than the body, the apex whitish, reddish-tinged; achenes minute, obovoid, 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, triangular with concave sides, loosely enveloped, yellowish-brown, short-stipitate, abruptly strongly apiculate, jointed with the slender style; stigmas 3, reddish-brown, slender; anthers 3 mm. long, obtusish.
Type locality: Austria (based on Host, Gram. Austr. 1 : 48. pi. 63.)
Distribution: Swamp-meadows in calcareous districts, Newfoundland to Quebec and New Brunswick; also in Europe. (Specimens examined from Newfoundland, St. Pierre, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, including Magdalen Islands and Anticosti.)