Carex microglochin ssp. microglochin

General:
Perennial herb from slender rhizomes; stems 1 to 3, stiff, erect, 2-25 cm tall, much longer than the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths brown below, tight, the ligules much longer than wide; blades 4 to 8, clustered near the base, 0.3-0.6 mm wide, margins in-rolled, stiff, erect to ascending, the tips blunt.

Flowers:
Spikes solitary, 5-12 mm long, 5-9 mm wide, with both female and male flowers, the few erect male flowers towards the tips, the lower 3 to 12 flowers female, reflexed; bractless.

Fruits:
Perigynia few, narrowly lanceolate, 3-5 mm long, 0.8-1 mm wide, pale green, brownish-green or straw-coloured, soon reflexed, more or less circular in cross-section, membranaceous, smooth, obscurely many-nerved, unstalked, the beaks not differentiated from the bodies; female scales narrowly egg-shaped, round-tipped, wider than and about 1/2 as long as the perigynia, light chestnut-brown, early deciduous, the margins sometimes translucent; stigmas 3; achenes 3-angled, 2-2.5 mm long.

Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia

If more than one illustration is available for a species (e.g., separate illustrations were provided for two subspecies) then links to the separate images will be provided below. Note that individual subspecies or varietal illustrations are not always available.

Illustration Source:  The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia