Turban Sedge

The two extremes in the morphologic variation in Carex turbinata are quite distinctive and may be correlated with latitude and elevation. An examination of specimens from across its range shows a continuum of variation in reproductive and vegetative characters.

Plants loosely cespitose or with solitary stems; rhizomes ascending, brown, 0–5 mm, stout or absent. Culms 21–47 cm, scabrous distally; bases (remnants of old leaves) fibrous. Leaf blades green, shorter than culms, 2–3.5 mm wide, herbaceous to coriaceous, papillose to scabrous abaxially, papillose to slightly scabrous adaxially. Inflorescences with both staminate and pistillate spikes; peduncles of staminate spikes 1.1–10 mm; proximal nonbasal bracts leaflike, equaling or exceeding inflorescences. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 2–5 (basal spikes 0); cauline spikes with the proximal separated, with 4–10 perigynia; staminate spikes (5.3–) 9.6–26.2 × (1–)1.4–3.4 mm. Scales: pistillate scales whitish or pale brown to dark reddish brown, with narrow to broad white margins, ovate to lanceolate, 4.2–4.5 × 1.7–2.5 mm, equaling perigynia, apex acuminate or short-awned; staminate scales ovate to obovate, 6–6.2 × 1.6–2 mm, apex obtuse or acute to acuminate or short-awned. Anthers 2.2–3.3 mm. Perigynia pale green to yellow or pale brown, 10–25-veined to at least mid body, obovoid to globose, 3.1–4.2 × 1.5–2.4 mm, as long as wide; beak straight, pale green to pale brown, 0.4–1.1 mm, smooth, apical teeth 0.1–0.4 mm. Stigmas 3. Achenes brown, globose, round in cross section, 1.6–2.6 × 1.5–2.4 mm.

Ariz.; Mexico.

Fruiting mid Jul–mid Aug.

Open pine forests, mountain slopes, oak-fir forests, moist stream banks, steep ravines; 600–3300m.

Carex leucodonta T. Holm

Carex leucodonta Holm, Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 16: 461. 1903
Carex varia var. W. Boott; S. Wats. Proc. Am. Acad. 18: 172. 1883. (From San Luis Potosi, Mexico.) Carex varia var. arizonica L. H. Bailey. Cat. N. Am. Car. 4, name only. 1884. (Type from Arizona.) Carex rigens L. H. Bailey, Bot. Caz. 9: 117. 1884. (Type from Arizona.) Not C. n«CKJ Thuill. 1799; nor C. rigens Boott. 1859.
Loosely cespitose, from stoutish, woody, short-elongate, brownish root.^tocks, sending forth ascending or rather short-creeping horizontal stolons, the culms slender but strict, 2-4 dm. high, sharply triangular, roughened above, much exceeding the leaves, conspicuously fibrillose and brownish -tinged at base, strongly phyllopodic, the dried-up leaves of the previous year strongly developed; sterile shoots central and phyllopodic or lateral and aphyllopodic; leaves of the flowering year with well-developed blades 5-S to a fertile culm, clustered near the ba-se, the blades erect or recurving, usually 1-2 dm. long, 2-3.5 mm. wide, firm, thickish, dullgreen, channeled on upper side, the margins revolute, slenderly long attenuate, very rough towards the sharply triangular tip, the sheaths smooth dorsally, whitish ventrally, the ligule very short, much wider than long; staminate spike solitary, linear, short-pcdunclcd, 1-3 cm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, the scales appressed, oblong-obovate, acutish or even ol)tiisc to shortawncd, white-hyaline with 3-nerved greenish center, sometimes slightly purplish -brown or reddish -brown-tinged; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, the upper approximate, the lower more or less strongly separate, sessile or very short-peduncled, erect, orbicular to short-oblong, 5-10 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, closely flowered, the perigynia 4-10, ascending in few rows; lowest bracts leaflet-like, sheathless or nearly so, somewhat scarious-margined at base, but not colored, from slightly exceeding to shorter than the culm; upper bracts reduced; scales ovate-lanceolate, acuminate to short-awned, thin, sharply keeled, the keel often rough, narrower but usually longer than perigynia, whitish-hyaline with 3-nerved green center; perigynia obovoid, 3.5 mm long, 2 mm. wide, the body nearly globose, suborbicular in cross-section, puberulent or shortpubescent, membranaceous, dull-green or straw-colored, 2-keeled and many-ribbed, stipitate, abruptly contracted into a conspicuous spongy base, 0.5 mm. long, abruptly contracted into a short beak 0.5 mm. long, erect, cylindric, not 2-edged nor serrulate, with hyaline, very shallowy bidentate tip; achenes suborbicular, triangular with convex sides and prominent blunt angles, closely enveloped, filling body of perigynium, 2 mm. long and nearly as wide, silvery-brownish, puncticulate, substipitate, truncate, and short-apiculate, jointedwith the very short style; stigmas three, slender, blackish, long.
Type locality (of C. rigens L. H. Bailey and C. varia var, arizonica L. H. Bailey, on which C. leucodonta is based): Tanner's Canyon, South Arizona (Lemmon 2904).
Distribution: Dry mountainsides, southern Arizona (Santa Rita Mountains) to Chihuahua. (Sierra Madre), and San Luis Potosl. (Specimens examined showing range as given.)

Carex turbinata Liebm. Danske Vid. Selsk. Skr V. 2: 265. 1850.
Carex varia f. Bock. Bot. Jahrb. 1: 364. 1881. (Based on C turbinata Liebm.)
Loosely cespitose, from stoutish, woody, short-elongate, brownish rootstocks, sending forth ascending or rather short-creeping horizontal stolons, the culms slender, erect, 2.3-5 dm. high, sharply triangular, very rough above, much exceeding the leaves, very conspicuously fibrillose and brownish-tinged at base, strongly phyllopodic, the dried-up leaves of the previous year strongly developed; sterile shoots central and phyllopodic or lateral and aphyllopodic; leaves of the flowering year with well-developed blades 5-S to a fertile culm, clustered near the base or on the lower third, the blades erect or ascending, usually 1-3 dm. long, 2-3.5 mm. wide, firm, thickish, deep-green, channeled on the upper side, the margins revolute, slenderly long-attenuate, ver>rough towards the tip, the tip sharply triangular, the sheaths smooth dorsally, whitish ventrally, the ligule very short, much wider than long, staminate spike solitary, linear, short-peduncled, 1-2 cm. long, 2.5 mm. wide, the scales appressed, oblong-obovate, obtusish, acute, or cuspidate, reddish-brown or purplish-brown with 3-nerved green center and hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 2 or 3, the upper approximate, the lower more or less strongly separate, sessile or short-peduncled, erect, oblong to short-orbicular, 5-12 mm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, closely flowered, the perigynia 5-15, ascending in few rows; lowest bracts leaflet like, narrow, 1-2 mm. wide, sheathless or nearly so, slightly colored at base, exceeding culm, the upper reduced; scales ovate to ovate-lanceolate, obtuse to cuspidate, rounded on back or little keeled, firm, smooth or nearly so, narrower than perigynia above and normally slightly shorter but sometimes somewhat longer, reddish-brown, with green, strongly 3-ribbed center, and hyaline margins; perigj'nia obovoid, 3.5 mm. long, 1.5-1.75 mm. wide, the body nearly globose, suborbicular in cross-section, puberulent or short-pubescent, membranaceous, dull-green or straw-colored, 2-keeled and many-nerved, stipitate, abruptly contracted into a conspicuous spongy base 0.5 mm. long, abruptly contracted into a short beak 0.5 mm. long, erect, broad-conic, 2-edged, not serrulate, with hyaline or more or less colored bidentate tip; achenes suborbicular, triangular with convex sides and prominent blunt angles, closely enveloped, filling body of perigynium, 1.75 mm. long and nearly as wide, dull-yellowish-brown, puncticulate, substipitate, truncate and short-bent-apiculate, jointed with the very short style; stigmas three, blackish, slender, long.
Type locality: "Fandtes i Dep. Oajaca i Central-Cordillerernes tempererte Region ved Yalala Juni." Mexico.
DiSTKiBL'TioN'; Mountains of Central Mexico (Hidalgo, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Federal District). (Specimens examined from Hidalgo, Jalisco, Federal District.)