FLORA OF ICELAND elements: Carex krausei, Krause's sedge, Toppastör

Carex krausei; The Krause's sedge is a low sedge (maximally 20cm, often lower).
  There are only basal leaves though the bract of the lowest spike is leafy, longer than this lowest spike.
  Male flowers are mainly at the base of the top spike. The top spike though is occasionally made up almost only mail flowers. The female flowers have three stigmas and the utricles have a long bristled beak. The spikes along the stem have distinct pedicells that occasionaly bend downwards like the hair sedge (Carex capillaris). It differs though in the much darker brown colored spikes and the generally more horizontal growing culms and spikes and also that the top spike often has female flowers in the apex of this spike.
  It grows on relatively moist soils and is found most often in the eastern inland & highland regions of Iceland.
  It is a member of the sedge family (Cyperaceae). The Icelandic name of this species is Toppastör.