keys to the vascular plants of east texas - Botanical Research ...

514 CYPERACEAE/CAREX
from only 2 TX counties (both annotated by R. Kral); it is apparently much less abundant in
TX than is var. coarctata; se U.S. from VA s to FL w to TX. While not officially designated as
such (e.g., TOES 1993; Carr 2002b; Poole et al. 2002), given its limited known occurance in the
state, we consider this variety to be of conservation concern in TX. �
var. coarctata (Elliott) Kral, (crowded together). Perennial; n = 30 (Kral 1971). Widespread in e 1/
2 of TX; se U.S. from VA s to FL w to TX. [B. coarctata (Elliott) Fernald, Scirpus coarctatus Elliott]
Bulbostylis juncoides (Vahl) Kük., (barbed), RUSH HAIR SEDGE. Perennial, to 30(—40) cm tall,
densely cespitose, often with hard, swollen culm bases; spikelets lanceoloid to cylindric, 4—6
mm long; n = 60 (Kral 1971). “Rolling upland” (from Carr label), prairies, savannahs, often in
rock crevices, typically at high elevations; disjunct from w TX e to Washington Co. (Turner et
al. 2003, based on Carr 17189, TEX); mainly Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos; AZ, NM, and TX.
Flowering throughout the growing season. [B. fendleri C.B. Clarke, B. juncoides var. ampliceps
Kük., Fimbristylis juncoides (Vahl) Alain] Kral (2002c, pers. comm.) indicates that this species
is extremely polymorphic.
CAREX L. CARIC SEDGE
Treatment and maps prepared by Stanley D. Jones (BRCH)
Cespitose or rhizomatous grass-like perennial herbs; culms trigonous or infrequently hexagonal
or rarely terete, mostly solid, rarely hollow, fertile or both vegetative (including
pseudoculms) and fertile culms present; leaves 3-ranked (this helps distinguish the vegetative
stage of Carex and other Cyperaceae from grasses); leaf sheaths closed, ligulate; ligule hyaline;
leaf blades mostly narrowly linear or sometimes broadly linear (grass-like), rarely otherwise,
usually with antrorsely serrulate margins; basal leaves usually more numerous and longer
than cauline leaves; inflorescences simple, compound, or decompound, of terminal spikes, terminal
and lateral spikes, racemes, spicate-racemes, or open or contracted panicles of spicate or
racemose branches; spikes (“spike” is frequently applied to most if not all of these broad ranging
inflorescence types in Carex) either unisexual or bisexual, sessile, separate and distinct or
crowded into a compact head in which the individual spikes are obscured, or spikes peduncled
and distinct, the peduncles either short or long (Braun 1967); bisexual spikes androgynous (=
having the staminate flowers distal to the pistillate) or gynecandrous (= having the pistillate
flowers distal to the staminate); unisexual spikes arranged so that the staminate spike is terminal,
with lateral spikes pistillate or sometimes androgynous; flowers incomplete and imperfect,
either pistillate or staminate (all East TX plants monoecious), each solitary in the axil of a
single subtending, 1—3-veined pistillate or staminate scale-like bract, without a perianth;
staminate flowers with (2–)3 stamens, the filaments in ours filiform and distinct; pistillate
flowers enclosed by an indehiscent sac-like scale (the perigynium, the most distinctive feature
of the genus) with an apical orifice from which the style and/or stigmas protrude at anthesis;
perigynium chartaceous, coriaceous, or membranous in texture, pubescent or glabrous, granular,
verrucose, or without any noticeable surface ornamentation, veinless or with several to numerous
raised or impressed veins, beaked or beakless, closely enveloping the achene and not at
all inflated to strongly inflated, with corky tissue at base or not so, winged or not so; carpels 2
or 3; style withering and deciduous or persistant on the achene, if persistent then the lower portion
being of the same color and texture as the achene; stigmas 2—3(–4); ovary 1, with a single
ovule; fruit an achene, lenticular, trigonous or subterete (obscurely trigonous), without perianth
bristles; chromosome number: n = 6—56 (Tucker 1987).
AA huge cosmopolitan genus of significant taxonomic difficulty, comprising ca. 2,000 species
(Ball & Reznicek 2002), mostly in n temperate and arctic regions, of moist to wet habitats but
with many dry site species; when tropical mostly montane. In many wetlands, Carex is one of
the most prolific and obvious constituents. The polarization of character states is very uncertain
and a difficult endeavor in a genus so large and whose phylogeny is so poorly understood