The combination Carex scirpoidea Michx. var. gigas Holm was published in 1904, without reference to a collector or specimen, citing only the type locality: Mt. Eddy, Siskiyou County, California. The first reference to a specimen as the type was in 1922 by Mackenzie, who cited a collection made by Cyrus Pringle in 1881, from Siskiyou Co., California. What constitutes the type of this combination has been questioned, however, and as late as 1999 was called unknown. A specimen has been found that bears every indication of being the holotype studied by Holm, collected on Mt. Eddy by E. B. Copeland in 1903.