Sea Sedge

Plants from Greenland and Europe often with two spikes and short-beaked perigynia have been called Carex marina subsp. pseudolagopina (Sörensen) Böcher; subsp. marina from North America and Siberia differs in having usually (2–)3(–4) spikes usually equal in size (the terminal spike not larger than the others), narrower leaves, and a more distinct beak. Both types occur in the North American material, subsp. pseudolagopina tends to be more arctic in distribution. The subspecies are not recognized here as separate taxa.

Plants loosely cespitose, in small clumps; rhizomes short. Culms erect, slender, 10–15(–30) cm, rough distally. Leaves: sheaths pale brown abaxially, persisting, inner band thin, hyaline, sometimes red tinged, truncate or shallowly concave at summit; ligules shorter than wide; blades pale green to gray-green, flat or slightly involute, 5–10 cm × 1–2 mm, shorter than culms. Inflorescences 0.7–1.5 cm × 4–7 mm; proximal bracts scalelike, occasionally bristlelike, shorter than spikes. Spikes 2–3(–4), lateral spikes gynecandrous, closely approximate or the proximal slightly separate, individually distinct, containing 3–8 perigynia, oblong-clavate, 3–6 × 3–5 mm; terminal spike not clavate. Pistillate scales red-brown with lighter center and broad white-hyaline margins oblong-ovate, subequal to perigynia, apex obtuse. Perigynia appressed-ascending, green-white proximally, pale brown distally, often brown in age, finely several-veined, elliptic, 2–3 × 1.25–1.5 mm, widest near middle, apex conic with weakly convex, usually entire margin, subcoriaceous; beak indistinct. Achenes red-brown, broadly obovate, 1.25–1.5 × 1 mm, dull to slightly glossy. 2n = 62, 64.

Greenland; Man., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., Nunavut, Que., Yukon; Alaska; Europe (Spitsbergen Island, Norway; Vajgac Island, Russia).

Fruiting Jul–Aug.

Boggy tundra, gravelly shores; 0–200m.

Carex amblyorhyncha V. I. Kreczetowicz

Carex marina Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 29: 247. 1836
"Carex glareosa Wahl." Liebm. Fl. Dan. 41 : 8. pi. 2430. 1845. (And of most authors.)
Carex neurochlaena Holm, Am. Jour. Sci. IV. 17: 301 ; 303./. /, 2. 1904. (Type from Rink Rapids,
Yukon.) Carex glareosa var. amphigena Fernald. Rhodora 8: 47. 1906. (Type from Bonaventure County,
Quebec. ) Carex glareosa f. elegantissima Kukenth. Allg. Bot. Zeits. 15: 35. 1909. (Type from island of
Sachalin, eastern Asia.) Carex amphigena Mackenzie, Bull. Torrey Club 37: 246. 1910. (Based on C. glareosa var. am-
pkigena Fernald. I Carex soriofkensis Lev. & Vaniot; Christ. & Lev. Bull. Acad. Geogr. Bot. 19: 35. 1919. (Type
from island of Sachalin. eastern Asia.)
Loosely cespitose, the clumps small, the rootstocks very slender, dark-brown, fibrillose, the culms very slender, weak, often curved, 1.5-2.5 dm. high, much exceeding the leaves, obtusely triangular below, acutely triangular above, smooth on angles except immediately beneath head, brownish at base and conspicuously clothed with the dried-up leaves of the previous year; leaves with well-developed blades 4-8 to a fertile culm, clustered on the lower fourth, the blades canaliculate, light-green or blue-green, somewhat glaucous, usually 3-12 cm. long, 0.75-1.5 mm. wide, the sterile-culm leaves longer, roughened towards the attenuate apex, the sheaths tight, hyaline and thin ventrally, short-prolonged beyond base of blade and continuous with ligule; head 0.7-2.5 cm. long. 5-10 mm. thick, consisting of 2-4 approximate or slightly separate spikes, the terminal spike gynaecandrous, oblong, 7-12 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, the lower half long-clavate, staminate, the upper half with about 10 appressedascending perigynia, the lower spikes usually pistillate, oblong to suborbicular, 4-9 mm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, containing 5-S appressed-ascending perigynia; bracts scale-like, the lowest occasionally short-cuspidate; scales ovate, obtuse, thin, light-chestnut to reddish-brown, with yellowish-brown center and hyaline margins and apex, wider than but exceeded by the mature perigynia; perigynia plano-convex, broadly elliptic-obovate, 1.5-2.25 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, thick, membranaceous, whitish, sharp-edged above, but not at all winged, strongly many-nerved on both sides, densely white-punctate, substipitate, spongy and round-tapering at base, abruptly contracted at apex into a minute beak (0.4 mm. long I, smooth, entire, obliquely cut dorsallv; achenes lenticular, quadrate, obovate, 1.75 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, brownish, shining, substipitate, truncately minutely apieulate, closely enveloped; style very short, jointed with achene, at length deciduous; stigmas two, slender, reddish-brown. Type locality: "Found at the sea-coast of Arctic regions by Dr. Richardson." Distribution: Salt marshes, Greenland and Labrador to New Brunswick, and on the Pacific coast from southeastern Alaska to St. Lawrence Island; also on the coasts of northern Eurasia. (Specimens examined from Greenland. Turnuvik Island, Labrador, Newfoundland, James Bay, Quebec, Alaska.)