David F. Murray

Plants cespitose, short-rhizomatous. Culms red-purple at base. Leaves: basal sheaths not or slightly fibrous; sheath fronts membranous; blades filiform, glabrous. Inflorescence a single spike; bracts absent; spike androgynous. Proximal pistillate scales with apex obtuse. Perigynia eventually spreading, adaxial face veinless, abaxial face weakly few-veined, narrowly to broadly ovate, plano-convex in cross section, 2–4(–4.5) mm, base tapering, margins acutely angled, apex tapering or abruptly beaked, not glossy, glabrous; beak 0.3–1 mm, with abaxial suture, entire or bidentate. Stigmas 2. Achenes biconvex, smaller than bodies of perigynia; style deciduous.

Species 1–3 (1 in the flora): North America and Eurasia with austral disjuncts or vicariants.

Lower Taxon

• Carex capitata Linnaeus