Torrey's Sedge

Culms 15–50 cm, pilose. Leaves: sheaths pilose; ligules longer than wide; blades 1.5–3 mm wide, pilose. Inflorescences: lateral spikes approximate or proximal distant, 6–12 × 4–7 mm; terminal spike staminate or, rarely, gynecandrous with not more than 1/4 flowers pistillate, 8–16 × 2–4 mm. Pistillate scales ovate-circular, 2–3 × 1.6–2.5 mm, not more than 1.5 times as long as wide, shorter than perigynia, apex obtuse to acuminate. Staminate scales ovate, 3.2–4.1 mm, apex acute or acuminate. Anthers 1.9–2.4 mm. Perigynia ascending, strongly 18–24-veined, ovate or obovate, 2.2–3.2 × 1.5–2.2 mm, glabrous; beak 0.2–0.5(–1) mm. Achenes 2–2.5 × 1.5–1.9 mm.

Alta., Man., Sask.; Colo., Minn., Mont., N.Dak., S.Dak., Wis., Wyo.

Fruiting summer.

Meadows, moist woods; 200–2500m.

Carex torreyi Tuckerm. Enum. Caric. 21. 1843
Carex abbreviata Schw.; Boott, Trans. Linn. Soc. 20: 141. 1846. (Concerning type locality see note below.)
Cespitose, but not very densely, from short-prolonged rootstocks, the culms erect, slender, not stiff, 2.5-4 dm. high, in medium-sized clumps, sharply triangular with slightly convex sides, short-pubescent, usually exceeding the leaves, very rough above, aphyllopodic, darkpurplish-tinged at base; leaves with well-developed blades 2 or 3 to a culm, not septate-nodulose, inserted on lower third but not bunched, the blades softly short-pilose, flat with slightly revolute margins, flaccid, erect or ascending, 8-25 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, deep-green, the sheaths tight, soft-pubescent, cinnamon-brown-tinged, deeply concave at mouth, the ligule conspicuous, longer than wide; uppermost spike staminate, linear-clavate, erect, usually short-peduncled, occasionally nearly sessile or long-peduncled, 8-16 mm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the scales ovate, acuminate or acute, 3-nerved, yellowish-brown with broad hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 1-3, short-oblong, 6-12 mm. long, 4-7 mm. wide, closely 10-25-flowered, in few to several rows, erect, sessile or short-peduncled, approximate or the lowest somewhat separate; lowermost bract short, from about the length of to exceeding the inflorescence, sheathless or very nearly so; uppermost bracts much smaller; scales ovate-orbicular, the lower acuminate, the upper acute, about as wide as but only half the length of the perigynia, reddish-yellow or brownish-yellow with broad white-hyaline margins and 3-nerved green center; perigynia ascending, broadly ovoid or broadly obovoid, 2.5-3 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, obscurely triangular in cross-section, round-tapering at base into a short broad stipe, membranaceous, puncticulate, strongly finely many-ribbed, yellowish-green, abruptly rounded at apex and depressed and abruptly beaked, the beak short, cylindric, truncate at orifice, hyaline and colored; achenes obovoid, nearly filling the perigynium, triangular with concave sides, 2.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, substipitate, short-apiculate with straight tip, jointed with the very short thick exserted style; stigmas 3, slender, short but rather prominent.
Type locality: See note below.
Distribution: Dry soil, Manitoba and Minnesota to Alberta, and southward to South Dakota and along the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to Colorado. (Specimens examined from Manitoba, Minnesota, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado.)