[C. brunnea Thunb. subsp. meyenii (Nees) T. Koya-ma; C. b. var. meyenii (Nees) Kiikenth.; C. remyi Boeck.]
(ind)
Densely tufted perennials forming large clumps, rhizomes short; culms slender, trigonous, rigid, 30-70 cm tall. Leaves numerous, folded, stiff, dark green, narrowly linear, slightly shorter than to as long as the culm, 2-3 mm wide, gradually tapering to a long-acuminate apex; sheaths brown to dark brown, ventrally disintegrating into somewhat reticulate fibers. Inflorescence a panicle 10-25 cm long, pendent in upper part, 4-6-nodose, panicle branches 1-4 per node, spikes 2-3 per inflorescence branch, sometimes spikes solitary, androgynous, cylindrical, 2-4 cm long, ca. 3 mm wide, peduncles filiform, long-exserted, 1.5-3 cm long; bracts up to 10 cm long, lower ones longer than their subtending spikelets but much shorter than the inflorescence, sheathing at base; pistillate glumes pale brown, hyaline, ovate-elliptic, 2.5-3 mm long, distinctly keeled, apex subacute or subobtuse; perigynium suberect, membranous, narrowly ovoid to lanceoloid, biconvex, 3-4.5 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, 9-12- nerved, hispidulous primarily along both edges, apex gradually narrowed to a slender beak ca. lA as long as the body, orifice bifid with sharp teeth ca. 0.6 mm long, base short-stipitate; stigmas 2. Achenes narrowly ellipsoid, lenticular. Indigenous to the Caroline Islands and Hawaii; in Hawai‘i occurring in dry and mesic forest, especially on slopes and ridges, 180-1,890 m, on all of the main islands, but no longer found on Kaho‘olawe.—Plate 204.
Though once considered to be conspecific with Carex brunnea of Japan, China, and the Himalayas, this species is easily distinguished by its much narrower, lanceoloid perigynia that are hispidulous only along the edges. In C. brunnea the perigynia are broadly ovoid to ellipsoid and moderately densely hispid over the entire surface. Carex meyenii appears to be most closely related to C. megacarpa T. Koyama of Malesia, which has much larger and more pubescent perigynia.