Water Sedge

Carex acutinella Mackenzie, sp. nov
Carex acutina L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1 : 52, in part (not as to type). 1889.
Loosely cespitose, the rootstocks rather slender, hard, creeping, blackish, scaly, the new shoots very short-ascending at the base of the old, the culms 2.5-6 dm. high, slender above, stoutish at base, sharply triangular, papillate, exceeding the leaves, from smooth to slightlyroughened above, purplish-brown-tinged at base, aphyllopodic and not arising from the center of a tuft of old leaves; sterile shoots elongate, aphyllopodic; leaves with well-developed blades 3-5 to a fertile culm, on the lower third, not bunched, obscurely and sparingly septatenodulose, the upper the longer, roughened on the margins and near the apex, flat with revolute margins, light-green or glaucous-green, papillate, thinnish but firm, long-tapering, mostly 1-2 dm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, the sheaths rounded and smooth or nearly so dorsally, slightly yellowish-tinged ventrally, breaking but not filamentose, the ligule conspicuous, as long as wide, or somewhat longer, tawny-tinged and purplish-red-dotted; terminal spike staminate, strongly peduncled, linear, 2-4 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, sonetimes with an additional smaller one at base, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse, purplish-black with narrow hyaline upper margins and obscure lighter midrib; pistillate spikes mostly 3, approximate or little separate, linear, 1.5-3.5 cm. long, 5 mm. wide, the upper short-peduncled, erect, the lower loosely erect or subcernuous on peduncles from shorter than to exceeding the spikes, closely flowered above, more loosely at base, the perigynia 20-50, erect-appressed in several rows; lowest bract leafletlike, sheathless, about equaling culm, the upper reduced ; scales oval-ovate, acute or obtusish, about as long as but somewhat narrower than perigynia, purplish-black with lighter-colored, often nearly obsolete midvein and very narrow white hyaline margins ; perigynia oval-obovate or oval, much flattened and not inflated, plano-convex, 3 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, 2-edged, 2-ribbed (the marginal), otherwise obscurely slenderly nerved, membranaceous, brownishyellow, red-dotted, puncticulate, rounded and short-stipitate at base, rounded at apex and with a few stiff cilia and abruptly apiculate, the beak 0.2 mm. long, entire or nearly so; achenes lenticular, broadly obovate, 1.5 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, broadly substipitate, in lower half of perigynium, abruptly short-apiculate, jointed with the short slender style; stigmas 2, slender, short.
Laxe cespitosa e rhizomatibus gracilibus; culmi lateraliter orientes acute triangulares folia superantes, glabri vel parce asperati ; folia 3-5 obscure nodulosa margine apiceque asperata revoluta pallide viridia vel glauca, vaginis non filamentosis; bractea inferior culmum fere aequans evaginata, superiores reductae; spica terminalis mascula linearis valde pedunculata; spicae femineae saepissime 3 et aggregatae, erectae vel subcernuae, pedunculis spicis subaequilongis; squamae ovatae acutiusculae atro-purpureae perigynia subaequantes; perigynia complanata ovalia vel obovata, 2-costata et obscure nervata, basi rotundata, apice in rostrum brevissimum subiter contracta; achaenia lenticularia late obovata.
Type collected in Oregon, Henderson 13, 1883, without other data (U. S. Nat. Herb. no. 27286).
Distribution: Oregon. (Specimens examined from Oregon.)

Carex suksdorfii Kukenth. Repert. Sp. Nov. 16: 434. 1920
Carex acniina var. tenuior L. H. Bailey, Mem. Torrey Club 1: 53. 1889. (Type, Henderson 1489, from Mt. Adams, Washington.)
Carex Suksdorfii var. ovalis Kukenth. Repert. Sp. Nov. 16: 435. 1920. (Type from Mt. Adams, Washington.)
Carex aperta f. concinnula Holm, Am. Jour. Sci. V. 2: 290. 1921. (Type from Mt. Adams, Washington.)
Cespitose with very short creeping rootstocks, the new shoots at base of old, long horizontal stolons absent, the culms slender, 2.5-7 dm. high, acutely triangular, papillate, very rough on the angles, exceeding the leaves, strongly purplish-red-tinged at base, obscurely phyllopodic, the dried-up leaves of the previous year short-bladed and inconspicuous; sterile shoots aphyllopodic; leaves of the year with well-developed blades 2-4 to a fertile culm, on lower fourth but little clustered, obscurely septate-nodulose, the blades erect, light-green or when young glaucous-green, flat with revolute margins or channeled towards the base, thinnish but firm, usually 2-3 dm. long, 2-4.5 mm. wide, long-tapering, roughened towards apex, the upper the longer, the lower of the year being much reduced, the sheaths smooth and rounded dorsally, white-hyaline and purplish-dotted or blotched ventrally, the ligule as long as wide; staminate spikes 2, linear, the terminal peduncled, 2-3 cm. long, 3.5-5 mm. wide, the lateral smaller, sessile, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse, purplish-black with lighter midrib and hyaline apex; pistillate spikes usually 2, rather strongly separate, the upper erect, the lower erect or even drooping on a slender smooth peduncle one half to one and a half times its own length, the spikes linear, 1-3 cm. long, 4.5-6 mm. wide, closely flowered or somewhat loosely at base, containing 25-50 appressed perigynia in few to several rows; bracts sheathless, purplish-black-auricled, the lowest leaflet-like, shorter than culm, the upper much reduced; scales oblong-ovate to lanceolate, obtuse to acute, narrower and from slightly longer to somewhat shorter than the perigynia, purplish-black with lighter or obsolete midvein and usually hyaline apex; perigynia broadly oval or obovate, plano-convex, strongly flattened, not inflated, 2.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, 2-ribbed (the marginal), otherwise nerveless, membranaceous, puncticulate, granular, sparingly yellow-glandular, light-green or straw-colored, rounded at base and substipitate, rounded and abruptly apiculate above, the beak 0.2 mm. long, entire, dark-tipped; achenes lenticular, obovate, 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, loosely enveloped in lower half of perigynium, substipitate, abruptly short-apiculate, jointed with the slender style; stigmas 2, short, slender.
Type locality: Mt. Paddo, Washington (Suksdorf 7383).
Distribution: Margins of subalpine lakes, Oregon and Washington (Mt. Adams). (Specimens examined from Washington.)