Carex lachenalii subsp. lachenalii

Carex tripartita All. Fl. Fed. 2: 265. pi. 89, f. 5. 1785
"Carex lepf&na L." Oeder, Fl. Dan. 5: 9. pi. 294. 1766. (From northwestern Europe.)
Carex Lachenalii Schkuhr, Riedgr. 51. pi. Y. 1801. (Type from central Europe.)
Carex approximata Hoppe, Bot. Tasch. Hoppe 1801: 152. 1801. (Type from central Europe.)
Not C. approximata All. 1785. Carex lagopina Wahl. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Nya Handl. 24: 145. 1803. (Type from northern Lapland.) Carex parviflora Gaudin, Etr. Fl. 84. 1804. (Type from central Europe.) Not C. parviflora
Host. 1801. Vignea lagopina Reichenb. in Mossier, Handb. ed. 2. 1609. 1829. (Based on Carex lagopina
Schkuhr.) Carex furva Webb, Iter Hisp. 5. 1838. (Type from the mountains of Spain.) Carex boetica Gay. Ann. Sci. Nat. II. 11: 181. 1839. (Based on C. furva Webb.) Not C. boetica
Auserw. 1848. Carex lagopina var. pleiostackya Drejer, Nat. Tidssk. 3: 443. 1841. (Type from Iceland.) Carex lagopina var. gracilescens Th. Fries. Bot. Notiser 1857: 208. 1857. (Type from Scandinavia.) Carex pusilla Wulfen, Fl. Norica Phan. 743. 1858. (Type from Austria.) Carex lagopina var. major Lange, Consp. Fl. Groenl. 135. 1880. (Type from Greenland.) Carex lagopina var. debilis Lange, Consp. Fl. Groenl. 135. 1880. (Type from Greenland.) Carex Parkeri Petrie, Trans. N. Z. Inst. 13: 332. 1881. (Type from New Zealand.) Carex lagopina var. furva Christ, Bull. Soc. Bot. Belg. 24 2 : 19. 1885. (Based on C. furva Webb.) Caricina approximata St. -Lag. in Cariot, Etude Fl. ed. 8. 2: 879. 1889. (Based on Carex approximata Hoppe. 1 Carex Sewellii Benn. & Clarke; Sewell, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 17: 456. pi. 8. 1889. (Type from
Lapland.) Carex lagopina var. boetica K. Richt. PI. Eur. 1 : 151. 1890. (Based on C. boetica Gay.) Carex lagopina f. anguslifolia Norman, Forh. Vid.-Selsk. Christ. 27 16 : 47. 1893. (Type from Norway.) Carex lagopina i. pauciflora Norman, Forh. Vid.-Selsk. Christ. 27 16 : 47. 1893. (Type from Norway.) Carex lagopina var. laxior Norman. Forh. Vid.-Selsk. Christ. 27 16 : 47. 1893. (Tvpe from Norway.) -Carex cooptanda C. B. Clarke, in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. 6: 707. 1894. (Type from Khasia Hills, India). Carex lagopina var. longisquama Kukenth.; J. M. Macoun, in D. S. Jordan, Fur Seals N. Pacif. 3: 572. 1899. (Type from St. Paul Island, Behring Straits.)
Loosely cespitose, in small clumps, the rootstocks slender, short-prolonged, brownish, fibrillose, obtusely triangular below, sharply so above, the culms 0.5-3 dm. high, slender but strict, sometimes curving, exceeding the leaves, smooth or slightly roughened above, brownish at base and clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower short-bladed or bladeless; leaves with well-developed blades 4-8 to a fertile culm, clustered on the lower fourth, the blades usually 4—10 cm. long, 1-2 mm. wide, green, rather stiff, flat with revolute margins, roughened towards the attenuate apex, the sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally, thin and short-prolonged at mouth beyond base of blade and continuous %vith Iigule; sterile-culm leaves similar; spikes 2-4, distinct, aggregated or the lower one or two slightly separate, the head 1-2 cm. long, 5-12 mm. thick, the spikes gynaecandrous, erect, obtuse at apex, short-oblong to suborbicular, the lower 5-10 mm. long, 2.5-5 mm. wide, rounded or slightly tapering at base, the staminate flowers inconspicuous, the uppermost spike slightly larger, strongly clavate at base with conspicuous staminate flowers; perigynia 10-30, closely arranged, appressed-ascending, the beaks not conspicuous; bracts scale-like, the lower occasionally short-prolonged; scales oblong-ovate, obtuse, thin, chestnut-brown with yellowish-brown center and conspicuous white-hyaline margins, the midvein not extending to apex, keeled below, about the width of but exceeded by the tips of the mature perigynia ; perigynia planoconvex, obovate, 2-3.5 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, thick, with thin and sharp but not winged margins, lightly several-nerved dorsally, nerveless or obscurely several-nerved ventrally, membranaceous, brownish-yellow, densely punctate, short-stipitate, round-tapering at base, rather abruptly contracted at apex into a short but prominent beak with entire or emarginate apex, 0.5 mm. long, dark-chestnut, hyaline-tipped, obliquely cut dorsally, smooth or nearly so; achenes lenticular, nearly filling perigynia, short-oval, sessile, short-tapering at base, truncately short-apiculate, 1.5 mm. long, 0.75-1 mm. wide; style slender, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, slender, light-reddish-brown.
Type locality: "Loc. In alpibus d'Ussey, & in monte Cenisio loeis uliginosis repent CI. Bellardi. " [Piedmont.]
Distribution: Arctic-alpine in calcareous regions, Greenland to Alaska, and southward to Quebec and northern Montana; also widely distributed in Eurasia, and reported from New Zealand. (Specimens examined from Greenland, Newfoundland, Quebec, Alberta. Montana, Yukon, Alaska.)