Obtuse Sedge

Culms (3–)10–20 cm. Leaves: blades 0.5–1.5 mm wide. Pistillate scales brown, with hyaline margins, lanceolate, 2.5–3.5(–4.5) mm, as wide and as long as or slightly shorter than and enclosing perigynia. Perigynia finely veined, at least in proximal 1/2, 3–3.8 mm; beak teeth firm or flexible. 2n = 52.

Alta., B.C., Man., N.W.T., Ont., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Minn., Mont., N.Mex., N.Dak., S.Dak., Utah, Wyo.; Eurasia.

Fruiting Jun–Aug.

Dry grasslands, dry bluffs, dry sandy flood plains; 10–1400m.

Carex obtusata Lilj. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Nya Handl 14:69. pi. 4. 1793.
Carex spicata Schkuhr. Riedgr. 11. pi. D. /. 15. 1801. (Type probably from Saxony; erroneously
given as the '*Pyrenaeis.") Carex microcephala C. A. Meyer; Ledeb. Fl. Alt. 4 : 205. 1833. (Type from Tscharysch River, Altai.) Carex Backana Dewev, Am. Jour. Sci. 29: 250. 1836. (Type from Carleton House, Saskatchewan.) Carex decipiens Turcz. (Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. 1838: 103, name only. 1838) Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc.
28': 323, as synonym. 1855. (Type from Dahuria.) Genersichia obtusala Heuffel, Flora 27: 528. 1844. (Based on Carex oblusata Lilj.) Carex oblusala var. braclfala Peterm. Anal. Pfl. 486. 1846. (Type from Leipzig. Germany; treated
by Kukenthal as subf. ) Carex obtusala var. capitata Peterm. Anal. Pfl. 486. 1846. (Type from Leipzig, Germany; treated
by Kukenthal as subf.) Carex oblusata var. cuspidala Peterm. Anal. Pfl. 486. 1846. (Type from Leipzig, Germany; treated
by Kukenthal as subf.) Carex obtusata var. oblonga Peterm. Anal. Pfl. 486. 1846. (Type from Leipzig, Germany; treated
by Kukenthal as subf.) Carex obesa var. monoslachya Bock. Linnaea 41: 185. 1877. (Based on C oblusata Lilj) Carex obtusata f. bracteala Neuman, Bot. Notiser 1887: 21. 1887. (Type from Sweden.) Carex obtusata f. spicata Kukenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4™: 88. 1909. (Based on C spicata
Schkuhr.)
Rootstocks long-creeping, ver>' slender but tough, purplish-black, scaly, the culms 6-20 cm. high, slender but strict, arising one to three together, sharply triangular, roughened above, noticeably exceeding the leaves, dark-purple at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year's growth conspicuous, the lowest sheaths leafless, occasionally .slightly filamcntose; leaves of the year with wcll-dcvclopcd blades several to a culm, all near the base, the blades 1.5-8 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, channeled, light-green, stiff, erect or spreading, short-attenuate, roughened towards the apex, the sheaths tight, truncate and slightly thickened at mouth, the ligule ver>' short; spike solitarj', androgynous, 5-12 mm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, bractless, the upper two thirds staminate, the perigynia 1-6, ascending or spreading-asccnding at maturity; pistillate scales ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate or cuspidate, thin, light-brownish with wide white-hyaline margins and lighter-colored midvein, usually exceeded by and narrower than the perigynia; staminate scales similar, but narrower and yellowish-brown-tinged; perigynia dark-chestnut or blackish-brown, shining, coriaceous, smooth, finely many sulcatc, scarcely inflated, oblong-obovoid, suborbicular-triangular in cross-section, deeply sutured dorsally, 3-3.5 mm. long, 1.75-2 mm. wide, truncatcly stipitate, round-tapering at base, tapering (often rather abruptly) at apex into a short (0.5-1 mm. long), smooth, conspicuously hyaline-tipped beak, obliquely cut, and at length bidentulate; achenes triangular, oblong-obovoid, 1.75 mm. long, I mm. thick, light-yellowish-brown, truncately substipitate and short-apiculate, the angles prominent, rounded, the sides low-convex; style rather short, rather stout, jointed with achene; stigmas three, elongate, dark-brown, long-persistent; rachilla shorter than the achene, i.taceous, sfjmetimes with a scale at the apex.
TvPK i/)CAI.ITv: "Habitat in Oelandiac siccis arcnosis apricis" ad Koping.
Distkibition: Dry sunny plains, prairies, hills, and ridges, Yukon southward to northern New Mexico, and British Columbia; widely distributed in Ivunula; erroneously recorded from Newfoundland. (SiKrcimcns examined from Yukon, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana, S^nith Dakota, Wyfifiiing, Colorarlo. northern New Mexico.)

Carex obtusata (also known as obtuse sedge) is a species of sedge in the massive genus Carex.

It is native to Canada.