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

556 CYPERACEAE/CLADIUM
Carex verrucosa Muhl., (with warts), WARTY CARIC SEDGE. A facultative heliophyte found in
open, hydric, acidic, depressional areas and open roadside ditches, less frequently in shaded areas;
Hardin, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Newton, and and San Jacinto cos. in the s Pineywoods;
also n Gulf Prairies and Marshes; se U.S. from NC s to FL w to TX. Fruiting Apr–mid-Jun(–Sep).
Section Pendulinae This species was reported new for TX by Bridges and Orzell in 1989; it is
similar to C. glaucescens but can be distinguished by the characters in the key to species.
Carex vulpinoidea Michx., (resembling Carex vulpina, with inflorescence like a fox tail), FOX-
TAIL CARIC SEDGE, COMMON FOX CARIC SEDGE. A heliophyte of wet roadside ditches, lakesides,
pondsides, and open wet floodplains, usually in clayey soils; throughout much of the
Pineywoods, in the Post Oak Savannah from Brazos Co. n, and in the Red River drainage; also
Denton Co. in the Cross Timbers and Prairies, the Rolling Plains, the nw corner of the High
Plains, and the n Gulf Prairies and Marshes; throughout s Canada and most of U.S. Fruiting
Jun–Aug. Section Multiflorae
CLADIUM P. Browne
SAW-GRASS, TWIG-RUSH, SWAMP SAW-GRASS
Rhizomatous perennials; culms obtusely trigonous; leaves cauline, with well-developed blades;
leaf sheaths loose; ligules absent; inflorescences cymosely branched, with numerous spikelets
usually in groups of 2–10 at the ends of short branches, leafy-bracted; spikelets with a single
achene-bearing fertile floret subtended by a second floret with an aborted pistil, as well as ca.
2–5 empty scales (these lacking achenes but sometimes with an aborted pistil or stamens);
scales of spikelets spirally imbricate; stamens 2; stigmas 3; perianth bristles absent; achenes terete,
without tubercles.
AA genus of 3–4 species, in both the Old and New worlds (Mabberley 1997; Tucker 2002c).
Cladium mariscus, sometimes called ELK SEDGE, was previously used for thatching in Great
Britain (Mabberley 1997), and its culms and leaves are used in making paper products in the
Danube Delta, Romania (Tucker 2002c). Cladium species superficially resemble some Rhynchospora
taxa but can be easily distinguished by the lack of tubercles on the achenes. (Greek
cladion, a branchlet, from the repeatedly branched inflorescence of the first named species)
REFERENCES: Tucker 1987, 2002c; McVaugh 1993; Miao et al. 1998; Ivey & Richards 2001.
1. Leaf blades 1–3.5 mm wide, to ca. 0.3 m long, with margins scaberulous (= only slightly roughened,
almost smooth to the touch); plants 1 m or less tall, the culms 1–2 mm in diam.; inflorescences
with only 1st and 2nd order branches (the branches only branched once) __________ C. mariscoides
1. Leaf blades 5–15 mm wide, to 1 m long, with margins dangerously saw-toothed; plants to 3 m
tall, the culms often 5–10 mm in diam.; inflorescences with 3rd and 4th order branches (the
secondary and tertiary branches rebranched) ________________________________________ C. jamaicense
Cladium jamaicense Crantz, (of Jamaica), JAMAICAN SAW-GRASS, SAW-GRASS, SWAMP SAW-GRASS,
JAMAICA SWAMP SAW-GRASS. Plant 1–3 m tall; rhizomes to ca. 10 mm in diam.; leaf blades ca. 0.3–
1 m long, with dangerously spinulose-serrulate (= saw-toothed) margins and midrib (on lower
surface); inflorescences 20–80 cm long, 10–30 cm wide, much-branched, sometimes droopy,
with spikelets in groups of 2–6 at the ends of short branches; spikelets 3–5 mm long; achenes
with surfaces roughened, obovoid to subglobose, apiculate-pointed or obtuse, contracted basally,
2–3 mm long. Stream or lake margins, wet areas, often in calcareous soils; Anderson, Wood
(BRIT), Harris, Jefferson, Travis (Turner et al. 2003), and Dallas (R. O’Kennon, pers. obs.) cos.; also
Gulf Prairies and Marshes, Edwards Plateau, and Trans-Pecos; se U.S. from VA s to FL w to TX.
Jul–Oct. [C. mariscus (L.) J. Pohl subsp. jamaicense (Crantz) Kük., Mariscus jamaicense (Crantz)
Britton] JAMAICAN SAW-GRASS is “the principal plant of the Everglades marshes of Fla.” (Godfrey
& Wooten 1979), and its ecology there has been studied in detail (Steward & Ornes 1975). Both