Dewey Sedge

Plants densely cespitose. Culms 14–89(–101) cm × 0.3–1.1 mm wide, smooth or papillose. Leaves: ligule on distal leaf 0.9–2.2 mm, as long as wide; blades 0.6–4.2 mm wide, widest blade 2.4–4.2 mm wide. Inflorescences 12–56 mm; proximal internode 6–34 mm; proximal bracts 6–49 mm, awn 7–46 mm; spikes (2–)3–5, longest ones 2–5, usually gynecandrous; proximal spikes with 1–2 staminate and (5–)7–12 pistillate flowers, 5.2–11(–13) × (2.1–)3.7–6.9 mm; terminal spikes usually with 1–3(–5) staminate and (7–)9–13(–16) pistillate flowers, 6.8–13 × 3.8–8.1 mm. Pistillate scales with colorless or stramineous margins, 3–4.5 × 1.6–2.2 mm, body 2.8–4.2 mm, apex acuminate to short-awned, awn to 0.6 mm. Staminate scales with colorless or stramineous margins, 3–5.3 × 1.2–1.6 mm, apex acute to acuminate or occasionally short-awned to 0.3 mm. Anthers (1.8–)1.9–2.2 mm. Perigynia erect to ascending, green to pale brown, 0–5-veined abaxially, usually veinless adaxially, narrowly ovate, 4–4.9(–5.2) × 1.3–1.5(–1.6) mm, 2.9–3.8 times as long as wide, apex gradually tapering; beak 1.4–2.1 mm, 0.32–0.4 times as long as perigynia, margins serrulate, apex entire or bidentulate, teeth to 0.2 mm, 0–0.05 times as long as perigynia. Stigmas 1.9–2 mm. Achenes 1.8–2.2 × 1.2–1.5 mm wide, 1.3–1.8 times as long as wide.

Carex deweyana Schw. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 65. 1824
"Carex remota L." Richards, in Frankl. Journey 750. 1823; ed. 2. 763. 1824.
"Carex Deweyi Schw." Eaton. Man. ed. 6. 69. 1833. (Change in spelling only.)
Vignea Deweyi Raf. Good Book 27. 1840. (Based on Carex Deweyana Schw.)
Carex Deweyana var. collectanea Fernald. Rhodora 15: 93. 1913. (Type from Gaspe Peninsula,
Quebec.) ,
Carex Deweyana var. slricta Farwell, Rep. Mich. Acad. 20: 169. 191ft. (Type from Keweenaw
County, Michigan.)
Densely cespitose, the rootstocks usually not elongate, the culms 2-12 dm. high, slender, weak and spreading or sometimes erect, sharply triangular with flat sides, exceeding the leaves, more or less strongly roughened beneath head, brownish at base and conspicuously clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year, the lower bladeless; leaves with well-developed blades usually 3-6 to a fertile culm, on the lower third, but not bunched, the blades erect or ascending, light-green or yellowish-green, thin, flat, usually 5-15 cm. long, 2-5 mm. wide, roughened towards the apex, the sheaths tight, hyaline ventrally, thin, concave and very short-prolonged at mouth beyond base of blade and continuous with ligule; spikes usually 3 or 4, the lowest strongly separate, the upper approximate or little separate, forming a head 2-5 cm. long, the spikes oblong or ovoid-oblong, the lateral usually pistillate, 5-12 mm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, the terminal larger, rounded at base and apex, with usually inconspicuous but often somewhat separated staminate flowers at base, and 3-15 appressed-ascending perigynia above; lower bract prolonged, 1-4 cm. long, enlarged and hyaline-margined at base, the upper shorter; scales ovate or oblong-ovate, very thin, whitish, hyaline with 3-nerved green center, frequently somewhat brownish-tinged, obtuse to awned, about width of but slightly shorter than perigynia, but concealing the bodies; perigynia plano-convex, oblong-lanceolate, thick, 4.5-5.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, membranaceous, light-green, nerveless ventrally, obscurely many-nerved at base dorsally, rounded, sessile or nearly so and strongly spongy at base, sharpedged above, serrulate at base of beak, tapering into a serrulate, shallowly bidentate beak 2 mm. long, the dorsal suture conspicuous, hyaline-margined; achenes lenticular, quadrate, suborbicular, occupying upper two thirds of perigynium-bodies, 2-2.5 mm. long, 1.3-1.75 mm. wide, yellowish-brown, substipitate, very minutely truncately apiculate; style slender, slightly enlarged at base and jointed with achene and at length deciduous; stigmas two, slender, yellowish-brown, long.
Type locality: " New England " and. more specifically, " In moist rocky woods. Williamstown and elsewhere. Dewey; Plainfield, Massachusetts. Dr. Porter; Norwich, Vermont, Barratt."
Distribution: Dry woods, Labrador and Newfoundland to Mackenzie and British Columbia, and southward to Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Colorado. (Specimens examined from Labrador, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, New Brunswick, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Manitoba, Keewatin, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Idaho, eastern British Columbia.)

Carex deweyana Dewey's sedge, short-scale sedge, is a species of sedge native to Canada and the United States.