Carex madrensis L. H. Bailey

Carex madrensis L. H. Bailey, Bot. Gaz. 25: 270. 1898
Carex polystachya var. madrensis Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich, 4=°: 267. 1909. (Based on C. madreyisis L. H. Bailey.)
Clumps medium-sized or large, from densely matted, woody rootstocks, the culms 2.5-6 dm. high, slender, obtusely triangular, smooth, phyllopodic, much exceeding the leaves, strongly brownish-tinged and strongly fibrillose at base ; leaves (not bracts) with well-developed blades 5-10 to a fertile culm, the lower clustered, the upper regularly separated, the blades flat with revolute margins, coriaceous, stiff, light-green, usually 1-2.5 dm. long, 2.5-4 mm. wide, strongly roughened towards the attenuate apex, the midvein prominent below, the sheaths tight, somewhat brownish-tinged ventrally, truncate at mouth and slightly pubescent, the ligule very short; spikes rather few for the group, androgynous, in 1-3 erect peduncled panicles, not in pairs, the lower on slender scabrous peduncles, the panicle bracts leaflet-like, strongly sheathing; panicles ovoid or oblong-ovoid, 1.5-3 cm. long, 7-15 mm. wide, containing 3-6 sessile, simple, appressed-ascending spikes, the rachis hispid; spikes ovoid or oblong-ovoid, 7-15 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, closely flowered, containing 5-15 appressed perig>-nia below in several rows and the inconspicuous staminate flowers above, the bracts small, awn-pointed; cladoprophyllum prominent, perigynium-like; pistillate scales broadly ovate, obtuse, acute or the lower cuspidate, chestnut-brown with greenish center and slightly hyaline margins, finely many-striate, the midvein prominent, 2.5-3.5 mm. long, wider but shorter than the mature perigynia; staminate scales similar, but narrower and hardly at all greenish; perigynia 4 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, glabrous, the body obovoid, sharply triangular, not inflated, membranaceous, puncticulate, bright-green, finely several-ner-ed, short-stipitate, tapering to a stout spongy base, abruptly contracted at apex into a smooth, minutely bidentate beak 1 mm. long; achenes obovoid, nearly sessile, 2.75 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, triangular with concave sides and blunt angles, very closely enveloped, short-apiculate, jointed with the very short, thickish, straight style; stigmas three, slender, reddish-brown.
Type locality: Sierra Madre mountains. State of Durango, Mexico (Rose 2357). Distribution: Dry woodlands, mountains. Durango to Morelos. (Specimens examined from Durango, Morelos.)

Carex madrensis is a tussock-forming species of perennial sedge in the family Cyperaceae. It is native to parts of Mexico.