Culms mostly phyllopodic, with dead leaf remains at base, 10-80 cm. Leaf blades 1-4 mm wide, margins revolute, scabrid. Inflorescences: proximal bracts 3-15 cm, equaling or exceeding inflorescences; lateral spikes, at least the proximal, usually with 1-3 staminate flowers at base, 6-22 × 4-8 mm, with 5-20 perigynia; terminal spikes occasionally gynecandrous with 1-8 pistillate flowers, 7-20 × 1-4 mm. Pistillate scales lanceolate, 2.8-7 × 1.1-2 mm, longer, narrower than perigynia, apex acute to acuminate, often awned to 3 mm. Staminate scales oblanceolate to obovate, 4-6 × 1-1.6 mm, apex obtuse to acute. Anthers 1.6-2.5 mm. Perigynia 2.5-3.6 × 1.8-2.5 mm, apex rounded; beak absent or to 0.2 mm. 2n = ca. 60.

Fruiting summer. Bogs, fens, marshes, usually associated with Sphagnum; 0-2000 m; Greenland; St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Nunavut, Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Conn., Idaho, Maine, Mich., Minn., N.H., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wis.; Eurasia.

Carex magellanica is one of the bipolar disjunct species of Carex discussed by D. M. Moore and A. O. Chater (1971). Carex magellanica subsp. magellanica occurs in cool temperate regions of South America. It is distinguished from C. magellanica subsp. irrigua by the terminal spike being almost always gynecandrous, the lateral spikes with (2-)3-7 staminate flowers, and the pistillate scales (1.3-)1.6-2.3 mm wide.

Stems loosely clustered in small tufts on short or long rhizomes, 2-7 dm, phyllopodic, the remains of old lvs commonly persistent at base; roots covered with a yellowish brown, felty tomentum; lvs flat, 1-3 mm wide; terminal spike staminate, 0.7-1.5 cm; pistillate spikes 1-4, nodding on slender peduncles, often with a few staminate fls at the base, the lowest subtended by a nearly or quite sheathless leafy bract 2-10 cm; pistillate scales light to dark brown, often with green midstripe, generally longer and narrower than the perigynia and tapering to a long, narrow point or short awn; perigynia much as in no. 178 [Carex limosa L.], 2n=58, ca 60. Acid swamps and Sphagnum-bogs; circumboreal, s. in our range to N.J., Pa., Mich., and Minn.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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