Comments
provided by eFloras
Sporadic sterile hybrids between Carex gynodynama and C. mendocinensis are well documented. A reported hybrid with C. hendersonii needs further study to confirm parentage.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Description
provided by eFloras
Plants densely cespitose. Culms reddish brown to dark maroon at base; flowering stems 20–70 cm, much longer than leaves at maturity, 1–1.7 mm thick, glabrous or sparsely pilose. Leaves: basal sheaths reddish brown, bladeless, pilose; others grading from dark red to green on back, tan-hyaline on front, reddish brown dotted and usually pubescent at apex; blades flat, 3–12 mm wide, usually pilose, more densely so abaxially, margins ciliate. Inflorescences: peduncles of lateral spikes, when present, less than 10 mm, often pubescent; proximal bracts usually shorter than inflorescence; sheaths 5–50 mm; blades 1.2–2 mm wide. Lateral spikes 2–5, 1 per node, usually crowded toward apex and overlapping staminate spike, erect, sessile or pedunculate, pistillate with 20–40 perigynia attached less than 1 mm apart, cylindric, 12–40 × 4–11 mm. Terminal spike staminate, rarely gynecandrous, sessile or very short-pedunculate, 8–30 × 2–5.5 mm. Pistillate scales reddish brown with narrow white-hyaline margins and green midrib, broadly ovate, shorter than mature perigynia, apex obtuse to short-cuspidate, often pubescent on midrib and awn, ciliate distally. Perigynia pale green, blotched with dark maroon at base, dark maroon-brown distally, 2-ribbed and finely veined with to 20 veins, most conspicuous near base, loosely enveloping achene, ellipsoid, 3.7–5.3 × 1–2.2 mm, membranous, base acute, apex narrowing to beak, body covered with long, appressed to spreading hairs; beak bidentate, 1 mm. Achenes substipitate, 2–2.6 × 1.2–1.7 mm. 2n = 50, 52.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Flowering/Fruiting
provided by eFloras
Fruiting late spring–early summer.
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- cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Habitat
provided by eFloras
Seeps, stream banks, roadside ditches, wet meadows and slopes, coastal prairies, mixed evergreen forest along the Pacific Coast; 0–600m.
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- cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
- copyright
- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA