Carex macrocephala Willd. ex Spreng.

Culms sharply angled, at least 1 angle serrulate distally, 10–35 cm. Inflorescences with pistillate heads 2.5–5 cm wide; proximal spikes ascending-spreading to spreading. Pistillate scales reddish to brown with green or gold center, sometimes with distal margins white or pale gold, 0.1–0.3(–0.5) mm wide, apex short-tapered with awn to 1.2–4 mm. Anthers 2.5–5 mm. Perigynia ascending to ascending-spreading, sometimes spreading, with deeply erose wings 0.7–1.7 mm wide, base cordate; beak ± straight, 6.5–9 mm from apex to achene, apex notched 0.7–1.5 mm adaxially. Achenes 3–4.5 × 2.3–3 mm. 2n = 74, 78.

B.C.; Alaska, Oreg., Wash.; Asia [Japan, Russian Far East (Kamchatka) to n China].

Fruiting spring–summer.

Sandy beaches along seacoasts, sounds, bays, and inlets, especially on dunes; 0m.

Carex anthericoides J. Presl & C. Presl

Carex macrocephala Wilid.; Spreng. Syst. 3: 808. 1826
Carcx anthericoides Presl, Rel. Haenk. 1 : 204. 1828. (Type from Nootka Sound.)
Carex Menziesiana Smith; Boott, 111. Carex 27, as synonym. 1858.
Carex macrocephala var. bracteata Holm, Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 10: 266. 1900. (Type from Kussiloff,
Alaska.) Carex macrocephala f. bracteata "Holm" Kukenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4 :0 : 187. 1909. (Based
on C. macrocephala var. bracteata Holm.)
Culms arising one to three together from perpendicular rootstocks arising from deepseated horizontal and long-creeping rootstocks, the culms very strongly long-black-fibrillose at base, 1.5-3.5 dm. high, obtusely triangular, very stiff and stout, often strongly roughened above, from shorter than to considerably exceeding the leaves, brown at base and clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year; leaves with well-developed blades 2-5 to a culm, near the base, the blades 1-2.5 dm. long, 4-8 mm. wide, thickish, yellowish-green, somewhat channeled, flat, roughened especially below and towards the apex, the margins minutely but sharply serrulate, the sheaths truncate at mouth, the ligule very short, much wider than long; heads generally dioecious, the pistillate enormous, 4-6 cm. long, 2.5-5 cm. thick, ovoid-orbicular to oblong, composed of a great many very closely aggregated and nearly undistinguishable spikes, the spikes at anthesis narrowly ovoid, 1.5 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, each with several to many appressed or at maturity squarrose perigynia, the bracts somewhat enlarged at base and from short and concealed by the mature perigynia to 6 cm. long and 3 mm. wide, with serrulate margins and much exceeding the perigynia, at times as many as 20 so developed; staminate heads 4 cm. long, 1 cm. wide, composed of many very closely aggregated spikes, similar to the pistillate at anthesis, but no developed bracts seen; scales ovate or ovate-lanceolate, awned, cuspidate, or acuminate, strongly many-striate, with green center and hyaline margins and chestnut-brown between, about the width of but at maturity exceeded by perigynia; perigynia plano-convex, or slightly unequally biconvex, ovate-lanceolate, thick, 10-15 mm. long, very coriaceous, smooth, shining, brownish-yellow or soon brownishtinged, the body ovate, 6-8 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, substipitate, somewhat spongy and rounded at base, strongly many-nerved on both faces, strongly wing-margined ventrally nearly to base, the margin irregularly cut and serrulate to base of beak and a short distance up the beak, the perigynia tapering into a smooth beak about length of body, very sharply bidentate, the teeth subulate, very sharp, erect; achenes obtusely triangular, thick, brownish, short-oblong, narrowed at base, truncate al ly constricted in the
middle, 4 mm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, jointed with the slightly flexuous slender style, the style slightly enlarged at base and at length deciduous; stigmas three, very long, slender, reddishbrown.
Tvi-K locality: "Sibir. Pallas."
DiaHtlBUliOM : Sands along I irom Oregon to Alaska, and on 1 1 1 » ,i .
southward to northern China and Japan. (Specimen! examined from Oregon, Washington, Vancouvrr, Alaska Peninsula, Cook Inlet.)
■ r. I'll, m/. no i10, J-N; Hook PI Itor. Am. pi. 216; Boott,
III. Caret 27. pi. 69; Al.r.im .. Ill M I';,, if. St./. 691; Jour. Rnss.Hot. 1911: 59. I. 40; Am. Jour Sti 43: pi ( C.f. 96, 'Regal, Tent PI I SI.'.
Id (Rbodora 32: 9 11 the North American plan) under the ni
Carex anthert' 'liflerinK from the Asiatic, I -<rv fully described
bj Boeckeler (Linnai ind by Kuntli (Enum. PI. 2: 428, 429, 1837), apparently
from the original material. These description , .!■■ distinctions madt b
■ ■ borne out by the few Asiatit ipecimtns 1 have seen. Willdenow's original description calls for two stigmas and Regel's very poor detail drawings show two stigmas. Other authors have, however, always observed three stigmas. I am leaving the question of the possible lack of identity between the American plant and the Asiatic plant open for further information.

Carex macrocephala, the big-head sedge or largehead sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyperaceae. It is found on the beaches and dunes of the northern Pacific; Japan, Primorsky Krai, Sakhalin, the Kurils and Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, and Alaska, British Columbia, Washington state and Oregon in North America.