Plants cespitose, short- and stout-rhizomatous. Culms brown at base. Leaves: basal sheaths fibrous; sheath fronts membranous; blades V-shaped in cross section when young, glabrous. Inflorescences racemose or, rarely, branched proximally, with (1–)2–13 spikes; bracts leaflike, sheathless; lateral spikes androgynous, short-pedunculate or subsessile, cladoprophyllate; terminal spike androgynous. Proximal pistillate scales with apex acuminate or awned. Perigynia ascending, veined, with 2 strong marginal veins, somewhat stipitate, broadly elliptic to obovate, trigonous in cross section, less than 10 mm, base tapering, apex tapering or abruptly beaked, stellate pubescent; beak 0.6–1.5 mm, emarginate, oblique, bidentate, with teeth 0.3–0.7 mm mm. Stigmas 3. Achenes trigonous, smaller than bodies of perigynia; style deciduous, thickened at base.

Distribution

North America, n Mexico.

Discussion

Species ca. 14 (1 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Carex muriculata