Uncinia hamata (Sw.) Urb. Symb. Ant. 2: 169. 1900
Carex hamala Sw. Prodr. 18. 1788. (Type from Jamaica.)
Carex uncinata var. hamata Sw. Kl. Ind. Occ. 84. 1797. (Based on C. hamata Sw.)
"Carex uncinata Iv.f." Schkuhr, Riedgr. 13. pi. G,f. 30. 1801. (In part, i.e., as to West Indian
plant.) Uncinia jamaicensis Pers. Syn. PI. 2: 534. 1807. (Type from Jamaica.) '• Uncinia phlemdes I'ers." C. A. Meyer; Galeotii, Bull. A<a<l. Itrux. 9^: 249. 1842. Uncinia mexicana Stcud. Syn. Cyp. 243. 1855. (Type from Mexico.) Uncinia Galeottii Boolt; C. B. Clarke, Jour. L'nn. Soc. 20: 400, as synonym. 1883. (Type from
Oaxaca, Mexico.) Uncinio multifolia Bock. Bot. Jahrb. 8: 207. 1887. (Type from Tocola, Colombia.)
Uncinia hamata var. mexicana Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4-": 54. 1909. (Based on U.
mcxicana Steud.) Uncinia hamata var. mexicana f. angustifolia Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4'°: 54. 1909.
(Type from Oaxaca, Mexico.)
Very densely cespitose, not stolonifcrous, the culms 2.5-6 dm. high, erect, slender or stoutish, stiff, smooth, bluntly triangular, exceeded by leaves, phyllopodic, dull-reddish-browntinged and sometimes slightly fibrillose at base; sterile shoots aphyllopodic; leaves with welldeveloped blades 6-15 to a fertile culm, on lower third, the sheaths tight, not septate-nodulose, usually reddish-brown-blotched ventrally, concave and minutely hispidulous at mouth, the ligule from nearly as long as wide to very short, the blades light-green, thick, coriaceous, 1-4 dm. long, 2-12 mm. wide, long-attenuate, smooth beneath, rough above, keeled beneath and channeled above towards base, otherwise fiat; spike solitary, androgynous, bractless, linear-cylindric, 6-18 cm. long, 2.5-3.5 mm. wide (excluding awns), the pistillate part closely or at base often loosely 50-150-flowered in several rows, the scales closely erect-appressed, the staminate part short, relatively few-flowered; pistillate scales obovate-orbicular to oblong-obovate, 4-6 mm. long, rounded on back, the margins united at base, many-nerved, obtuse or acutish, concealing perigynia or nearly so, rigid, persistent, green with yellowish-white cartilaginous margin, the tip narrowly purplish-margined and minutely ciliate; staminate scales smaller, fewernerved, more strongly purplish-margined; perigynia oblanceolate, 4.5-6 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, pianoor concavo-convex, membranaceous, slenderly rather many-nerved, hispidulous above, the margins setulose-ciliate, especially above, dull-brownish-straw-colored, tapering at base into a short stipe, short-tapering at apex but beakless, the orifice truncate; achenes oblong-obovoid, closely enveloped and about filling upper part of perigynium, 3.5 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, obtusely triangular, yellowi.sh-white, rounded at base, truncate at apex; style short, strongly conic at base, jointed with achene; stigmas three, short-exserted, reddish, slender, rather short; rachilla long-exserted and very conspicuous, the exserted part 3-6 mm. long, ascending, ascending-spreading, or spreading, smooth, slender but rigid, very strongly uncinate.
TypB locality (of Carex hamata, on which Uncinia hamata is based) i Jamaica.
Distribution: Moist woodlands at higher elevations, Jamaica; Haiti; Cuba; southern Mexico to southern Brazil and northern Argentine. (Specimens examined from Jamaica; Haiti; Cuba; Vera Cruz; Oaxaca; Costa Rica; Guatemala; Panama.)
