Carex circinata C. A. Mey.

W. J. Cody (1996) mapped one locality for Carex circinata in Yukon and also stated that its occurrence is disputed. Carex circinata is unexpectedly absent from the adjacent Russian Far East, where a close relative, C. hakkodensis Franchet, occurs (T. V. Egorova 1999).

Plants cespitose, short-rhizomatous. Culms 5–25 cm. Leaves involute, curved, 0.5 mm wide. Spike androgynous. Pistillate scales shorter to longer than and as wide as to wider than perigynia, often covering all but beak, margins hyaline, apex obtuse to acute or, occasionally, cuspidate. Perigynia 4.5–6 mm, distal margins finely serrulate; beak tip hyaline.

B.C.; Alaska, Wash.

Fruiting Jun–Aug.

Cliffs, talus slopes, rocky knolls; 60–1000m.

Carex circinata C. A. Meyer, M6m. Acad. St.-P6tersb. Sav. Etr 1:209. pi. 6. 1831.
Carex arida Cham.; Bock. Linnaea 39: 28, as synonym. 1875. Not C. arida Schw. & Torr. 1825. Very densely cespitose, the rootstocks slender, tough, brownish, very short, the culms 5-15 cm. high, erect or recurved, slender, triangular, smooth or little roughened on the angles, usually exceeded by the leaves, phyllopodic, light-brownish-tinged at base, the dried-up leaves of the previous year conspicuous; leaves with well-developed blades several to a culm, densely clustered towards the base, the blades light-green, stiff, strongly recurved-spreading, involute, filiform, 2-10 cm, long, 0.5 mm. wide, roughened towards the attenuate stiff apex, the sheaths tight, concave at mouth, the lower strongly striate dorsally, the ligule much wider than long; spike solitary, androgynous, 1.5-2.5 cm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, the upper fourth staminate, the lower three fourths closely flowered above and more loosely below and containing 8-15 erect-ascending perigynia in few rows; bracts none; pistillate scales reddish, with broad I-3-nerved straw-colored center and narrow white-hyaline apex and margins, wider than the perigynia, the lowest lanceolate, cuspidate, and exceeding the perigynia, the middle and upper obovate, very obtuse, exceeded by the perigynia; staminate scales like the upper pistillate scales; perigynia spindle-shaped, obscurely compressed-triangular in cross-section, not inflated, 4.5-6 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, straw-colored, membranaceous, glabrous, smooth, lightly striate, stipitate, tapering at base, and tapering at apex into a somewhat serrulate reddish-tinged beak 1.5 mm. long, the orifice white-hyaline, obliquely cleft; achenes obtusely triangular, rather closely enveloped, narrowly linear-oblong, 2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, bluntly apiculate, jointed with the slender, straight, deciduous style; stigmas three, rarely two, red, slender, long.
Type locality: " Habitat in rupibus Unalaschkae."
Distribution: Along or near the northwestern coast of North America from northwestern Washington to the Aleutian Islands. (Specimens examined from Washington (Clallam County), Queen Charlotte Islands, Alaska (coast).)