183.
Carex
nudata
W. Boott in S. Watson, Bot. California. 2: 241. 1880.
Carex acutina L. H. Bailey; C. bishallii C. B. Clarke; C. hallii L. H. Bailey 1887, not Olney 1872; C. nudata var. anomala L. H. Bailey; C. suborbiculata Mackenzie; C. tenacissima Suksdorf
Plants cespitose, flowering from first-year shoots. Culms acutely angled, 35—70 cm, glabrous. Leaves: basal sheaths red-brown; sheaths of proximal leaves bladeless, scabrous, fronts with red-brown spots, prominently ladder-fibrillose, apex red-brown, U-shaped; blades hypostomic, 2—4 mm wide, papillose abaxially. Inflorescences: proximal bract shorter than inflorescence, 1—2 mm wide. Spikes erect; staminate 1—2; pistillate 2—4; proximal pistillate spike 2—4.5 cm × 5—6 mm, base cuneate. Pistillate scales dark red-brown to black, shorter than perigynia, apex obtuse, awnless. Perigynia ascending, pale brown with red-brown spots on apical 1/2, often blackish apically, 5—9-veined on each face, somewhat flattened, loosely enclosing achenes, thin-walled, ovoid or ellipsoid, 2.2—4 × 1.2—1.8 mm, leathery, dull, apex rounded or obtuse, papillose; beak red-brown, 0.1—0.3 mm. Achenes not constricted, dull. 2n = 70, 72.
Fruiting Jun—Jul. Dense tussocks in rocky streambeds; 0—1500 m; Calif., Oreg., Wash.
Carex nudata is also a member of the C. stricta group and is distinguished from sympatric members of the group by flowering from first-year shoots and having very narrow inflorescence bracts and somewhat elongated, heavily veined perigynia. It has a very distinctive growth form and habitat, dense tussocks among rocks in streambeds.
