Description
provided by eFloras
Plants colonial, long-rhizomatous. Culms 15–55 cm, smooth to scabrous distally. Leaves: proximal sheaths pale brown to dark brown, occasionally red tinged, 4.5–8(–10) mm thick; ligules 1.2–3.9 mm, usually 0.6–1.5 times as long as wide; leaf blades very glaucous, channeled, 4.5–40 cm × 1.5–3.5(–6.5) mm, coriaceous. Inflorescences 2.2–8.59(–12) cm, 0.6–1.8 length of proximal bract; proximal bract 0.8–11 mm, sheath 0–1.2cm, blade 0.8-10 cm; pistillate spikes densely flowered, ovoid to short-cylindric, 0.7–2.5 cm × 4–5.5 mm wide; lateral spikes erect or ascending on stiff peduncles. Pistillate scales pale brown to dark purple-brown with broad green center and narrow hyaline margins, obtuse to acute. Perigynia strongly ascending in the spikes, glaucous, fusiform, 3–4.8(–5) × (1–)1.3–2 mm wide, heavily papillose; beak absent or minute, erect, straight. Achenes pale to dark brown, 2.1–2.5 × 1.2–1.8 mm wide. 2n = 32.
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- Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
Distribution
provided by eFloras
St. Pierre and Miquelon; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Ind., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.J., N.Y., Oreg., Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo.; Central America (Panama); South America; Eurasia.
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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
Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Carex livida (Wahl.) Wilid. Sp. PI. 4: 285. 1805
Carex limosa var. livida Wahl. .Sv. Vet.-Akad. Nya Handl. 24: 162. 1803. (Type from Lapland.)
Carex Crayana Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 25: 141. 1833. (Type from Utica, New York.)
Carex lanceala Dcwev, Am. Jour. Sci. 29: 249, in part. 1836. (Type from Cumberland River.)
Edritria livida Raf. Good Book 26. 1840. (liased on Carex livida Willd.)
Carex livida var rarficadj Paine, Ann. Rep. N. Y. State Cab. 18: 159. 1865. (Type from Litchfield,
Herkimer County, New York.) Carex livida var. lypica Kernald, Rhodora 28: 8. 1926. (Based on C. limosa var. livida Wahl.) Carex livida var. Grayana Pernald, Rhodora 28: 8. 1926. (Based on C. Grayana Hcwcy.) Carex livida var. rufinaeformis Fcrnald, Rhodora 28: 8. 1926. (Type from Newfoundland.)
Rootstocks slender, elongate, the clumps small, sending forth long, slender, horizontal, white, scaly stolons; the culms 0.5-6 dm. high, slender, erect, triangular, smooth, exceeding or shorter than the leaves, light-brown at base, strongly phyllopodic, the dried-up leaves of the previous year very conspicuous; sterile shoots conspicuous, reduced to tufts of leaves; leaves 6-12 to a culm, bunched on the lower third, the blades deeply channeled, strongly glaucous, thickish, stifT, long-attenuate, ascending or spreading, 1-4 dm. long, 0.5-3.5 mm. wide, roughened towards the apex, the sheaths smooth, very thin, and hyaline ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule short; terminal spike stamina te, rarely g>-naecandrous, roughpeduncled, linear, obclavate, 0.7-3 cm. long, 3-4 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse, purplish, with greenish or lighter center and hyaline margins; pistillate spikes 1, 2 or 3, the upper two usually contiguous or only slightly separate, the lower more or less remote, sometimes subradical and long-peduncled, oblong, 1-2 cm. long, 5 mm. wide, sessile or short-exsertpeduncled, closely flowered, the perigynia 5-15, erect-ascending; bracts leaflet-like, the upper short-sheathing, the lower more strongly sheathing, one or both sometimes exceeding the culm; scales ovate, obtuse to acutish or somewhat mucronate, about the %vidth of and closely partially enveloping but usually considerably shorter than the perig^-nia, light-purplish with broad, green, 3-nerved center, and white-hyaline margins; perigynia oblong-ovoid, not inflated, somewhat flattened and obscurely obtusely triangular in cross-section, 2.2-4.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, strongly glaucous-green, 2-keeled and finely many-nerved, submembranaceous, strongly puncticulate, tapering to the broadly stipitate base and to the entire, beakless, but slightly pointed or rounded apex, the orifice entire; achenes (sometimes twin) broadly ovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, completely filling perigynium, brownish-black, triangular with slightly concave sides and prominent angles, rounded and truncately stipitate at base, rounded at apex, strongly straightor bent-apiculate, jointed with the straight, slender, often slightly exserted style; stigmas three, long, slender, reddish-brown.
Type locality (of C limosa var. livida Wahl., on which C. livida is based): "In paludibus ad fontes sylvestres Lapponiae enontekensis."
Distribution: Sphagnum bogs or wet places, usually in calcareous districts, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Manitoba to Alaska, and southward to Connecticut, the pine barrens of New Jersey, northwestern New Jersey, Michigan. Idaho, and northwestern California; also in northern Europe. An inconspicuous species because it matures rapidly and soon drops its perigynia. (Specimens examined from Labrador, Newfoundland, St. Pierre, Quebec, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Manitoba, Saskatchewan. Alberta, Idaho. Washington, British Columbia, including Vancouver Island, northwestern California, Alaska.)
- bibliographic citation
- Kenneth Kent Mackenzie. 1935. (POALES); CYPERACEAE; CARICEAE. North American flora. vol 18(4). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY