General:
Perennial, tufted herb from fibrous roots; stems 40-120 cm tall, exceeding the leaves.

Leaves:
Sheaths tight, green and strongly veined; blades flat, 2.5-4.5 mm wide, borne on the lower 1/3 of the stem.

Flowers:
Spikes 5 to 15, the lower ones reduced, aggregated into an ellipsoid, 2-8 cm long head, unstalked, with both female and male flowers, the female ones towards the tips; bracts subtending the spikes sheathless, reduced, inconspicuous, except the lowermost sometimes awnlike and 0.5-1 cm long.

Fruits:
Perigynia egg-shaped, 3-3.5 mm long, 1.75-2 mm wide, yellowish-green to brownish, more or less flattened, the margins winged nearly to the bases, the upper 1/2 fringed with teeth, several-nerved on the backs, almost nerveless below, the beaks obliquely cleft, less than 1 mm long, narrowly margined and toothed below; female scales narrowly elliptical, yellowish-green, with translucent margins, somewhat shorter and narrower than the perigynia; stigmas 2; achenes lens-shaped, 1.1 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

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Carex straminea var. mixta L.H. Bailey