Carex mertensii Prescott
 
FamilyCyperaceae — APG family: Cyperaceae
DescriptionDensely caespitose; culms tall, longer than leaves; leaves 4-7 mm wide, flaccid, the basal with short blade; spikes 5-10, approximate, drooping, on slender stalks, the terminal with (sometimes few) staminate flowers above, the lateral pistillate or with few staminate flowers at base; lower bract leaflike, extending beyond in- florescence; scales in mature specimens much narrower and shorter than perigynia; perigynia ovate to roundish, light-colored, nerved, with beak 0.25-0.5 mm long.
EcologyWet, rocky slopes. A beautiful and very characteristic sedge.
Taxonomy
notes
Broken line on circumpolar map indicates range of subsp. urostachys (Franch.) Calder & Taylor (C. urostachys Franch.). (See color section, under C. Gmelinii.)
Hultén's Flora About

This is a digital representation of Eric Hultén’s ‘Flora of Alaska and Neighboring Territories: A Manual of the Vascular Plants’, which was published by Stanford University Press in 1968. The book was digitized by C. Webb (at UAMN) as part of the Flora of Alaska project, with funding by the US NSF (Grant 1759964 to Ickert-Bond & Webb), and with permission of Stanford University Press. Data and images © 1968 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Jr. Univ. Usage licence: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0. NB: You may find OCR errors; please refer to the hard-copy if in doubt.