Carex flacca subsp. erythrostachys

Subgen. Carex: Monoecious; spikes 2 or more, usually unisexual and ± dissimilar, terminal or upper male and lower lateral female, or sometimes terminal gynecandrous and similar to lateral female; inflorescence usually simple; cladoprophyll usually present; stigmas 2 or 3; nut trigonous to terete or biconvex to plano-convex.
Sect. Glaucae: Not or laxly caespitose; rhizomes creeping. Male spikes cylindrical, dense to lax; lowest bract leaf-like, c. as long as inflorescence. Utricles often flattened, membranous, inflated, ± veinless, papillose to scabridulous, abruptly narrowed into a minute, ± truncate beak. Stigmas 3.
Not or laxly caespitose; rhizomes long, far-creeping. Stems 10-70(-90) cm, subterete to bluntly trigonous, usually smooth; basal sheaths purplish-brown or very dark brown, not fibrous. Leaves 1.5-6 mm broad, shorter than stems, rather rigid, glaucous beneath, dull green above, often curved, flat to channelled, margins often involute. Male spikes 1-3, approximate, terminal longest, 1.5-6.5 cm. Female spikes 1-4(-5), 1.5-6.5 cm, rather distant but often overlapping, erect to pendent, dense to lax; peduncles to 3 cm, often scabrid; lowest bract equalling or exceeding inflorescence; sheath obsolete (to 5 mm). Female glumes ovate, dark to pale reddish-brown with greenish-white median band. Utricles pale yellowish-green, often purple-spotted and turning dark purplish-black, obovoid to oblong-obovoid or broadly ellipsoid, 2-4.2 mm, minutely papillose, margins and adaxial surface sometimes scabridulous; beak to 0.3 mm, truncate or slightly emarginate, often dark purplish.
1. Stems often rather slender; female spikes usually dense at least above, often pedunculate and pendent (at least lowest); female glumes often blackishbrown, acute to aristate, usually shorter than utricles, with 1 narrow midvein; utricles 2.2-3.3 mm, obovoid, often somewhat flattened, rounded above, patent to erecto-patent subsp. flacca Moist meadows, c. 2300 m.
1. Stems usually rigid; female spikes rather lax, almost sessile, all ± erect; female glumes acute or with denticulate arista, c. as long as utricles or longer, reddish- brown with broad 3-veined mid-line; utricIes broadly ellipsoid, 3.1-4.2 mm, ± terete, rather narrowed above, erecto-patent to erect subsp. serrulata Wet to dry meadows, grassland, streambanks, roadsides, scrub, dry rocky slopes, forests, s.l.-1600 m; usually calcicole. IX:121.