Carex muelleri

Detailed description

Rhizomatous; pale yellow-green, whitish-green to green tufted and swarding sedge. Rhizome 2–3 mm diameter, rather woody, covered in closely sheathing brown scales. Culms stiffly erect, 60–450 × 0.5–1 mm, > leaves, terete, flattened or plano-convex above, terete below, rather wiry, glabrous; basal sheaths dark grey-brown or reddish brown. Leaves 80–350 × 0.5–15 mm, plano-convex or with the upper surface slightly concave, lamina grooved along back, flattened near tip, occasionally scabrid along the margins. Inflorescences almost dioecious, with plants either mostly male or female; males with sparse female flowers near inflorescence apex, females with males in the same position. Inflorescence an erect, linear, continuous, compound spike 15–40 × 4 mm. Spikes 5–10, more or less contiguous, pale, straw-coloured to almost grey-green. Subtending bracts glume-like, rather long-awned, though not > inflorescence. Glumes more or less the same length as the utricles, linear-lanceolate, acuminate or awned, rather membranous to chartaceous, pale green to pale brown or hyaline. Utricles 3.5–4.5 × 1–1.2 mm, plano-convex, narrow-lanceolate, strongly nerved on the flat face; beak 1.5–2 mm long, tapering, with finely scabrid wings and an oblique, bifid orifice; stipe 0.5–1 mm, hardly contracted. Stigmas 2. Nut c. 2 mm long, brown, oblong-obovoid, smooth, glossy.