Carex de Mackenzie

Carex norvegica Willdenow ex Schkuhr, Besch. Riedgräs. 1: 50, plate S, fig. 66. 1801, not Retzius 1779

Plants loosely cespitose; rhizomes short; stolons present, often long. Culms sometimes curved, slender, 10–40 cm. Leaves: sheaths gray-brown to pale brown abaxially, inner band thin, hyaline, often red tinged, summit prolonged, concave; ligules as long as wide; blades yellowish green to pale gray-green, flat, 5–20 cm × 1–3 mm, subequal or shorter than culms, soft. Inflorescences 1.5–5 cm × 7–12 mm; proximal bracts scalelike, sometimes bristlelike, shorter than spikes. Spikes 3–6, gynecandrous, proximal spikes separate, usually 1–1.5 cm apart, distal approximate, individually distinct, containing 5–15(–20) perigynia, oblong, 5–15 × 4–6 mm; terminal spike conspicuously staminate at base, long-clavate, 10–20 mm. Pistillate scales pale red-brown with lighter center and narrow hyaline margins, ovate, ± equaling, concealing perigynia, apex obtuse. Perigynia appressed-ascending, gray-green, often reddish dotted, often pale brown in age, finely several-veined, oblong-elliptic, 2.5–3.3 × 1.5–2 mm, widest near middle, coriaceous; beak entire or with few marginal teeth. Achenes pale brown to gray-brown, oblong, 1.75–2 × 1.25–1.5 mm, dull. 2n = 64.

Fruiting Jun–Aug. Coastal and estuarine marshes, mostly brackish soils, seashores; 0–600 m; Greenland; B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Maine; Europe; Asia.