CAREX sect. FOETIDAE in Flora of North America @ efloras.org

26l. CAREX Linnaeus sect. FOETIDAE (Tuckerman ex L. H. Bailey) Kükenthal in H. G. A. Engler, Pflanzenr. 20[IV,38]: 114. 1909.

A. A. Reznicek

Carex [unranked] Foetidae Tuckerman ex L. H. Bailey in J. M. Coulter, Man. Bot. Rocky Mt., 390. 1885

Plants colonial or loosely cespitose, short-rhizomatous. Culms brown at base. Leaves: basal sheaths sometimes fibrous; sheath fronts membranous, distal leaves with at least narrow hyaline or white-hyaline band extending 1/2 length of sheath; blades V-shaped in cross section when young, sometimes involute, glabrous. Inflorescences racemose, with (1–)3–20 spikes, globose to ovoid-globose; bracts absent or scalelike, sheathless; lateral spikes androgynous, often very condensed and individually indistinct, sessile, without prophylls; terminal spike androgynous. Proximal pistillate scales with apex subobtuse, acute or shortly awned. Perigynia erect to spreading, faces veined or veinless, sessile to stipitate, ovate to narrowly ovate, plano-convex in cross section, base rounded, margins acutely angled, apex tapering to beak, glabrous; beak 0.5–1.5 mm, with abaxial suture, margins often serrulate, apex obliquely cleft or slightly bidentate. Stigmas 2. Achenes biconvex, smaller than bodies of perigynia; style deciduous.

Species 10 or 11 (4 in the flora): North America, South America, Eurasia.

Perigynium venation, shape, and inflation, and stipe presence are difficult to assess in specimens of Carex sect. Foetidae that are not fully mature.

1 Leaves flat, shorter than the erect culms, the widest (including dead remains of last years leaves) (1.5–)2–3.5(–4) mm wide; perigynia not inflated, ± equaling pistillate scales at maturity; beak well defined, 0.9–1.5 mm; anthers 1.5–2.8 mm. 65 Carex vernacula

+ Leaves strongly folded to involute, often equaling the usually curved culms, the widest 0.5–2.2(–2.5) mm wide; perigynia either inflated or exceeding pistillate scales or both; beak sometimes poorly defined, 0.5–1.1 mm; anthers 0.9–2 mm. (2)

2 (1) Perigynia strongly inflated, ± equaling pistillate scales, delicate and membranous; stipe absent or broad, to 0.2 mm; spikes ca. 8–15. 64 Carex perglobosa

+ Perigynia somewhat inflated or not, exceeding pistillate scales, papery or leathery; stipe usually conspicuous, 0.2–0.7 mm; spikes (1–)3–7. (3)

3 (2) Perigynia finely veined to nearly veinless abaxially, essentially veinless adaxially, ovate to broadly ovate, (1.4–)1.6–2.3(–2.7) mm wide; pistillate scales with usually broad whitish hyaline margins, broadly ovate to orbicular, apex obtuse to ± acute; arctic and subarctic lowlands, largely coastal. 62 Carex maritima

+ Perigynia finely veined on both faces, elliptic, 1–1.5(–1.6) mm wide; pistillate scales with very narrow hyaline margins (except sometimes the lowest), ovate, apex acute to acuminate; alpine zone of the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Colorado, Sierra Nevada. 63 Carex incurviformis

Lower Taxa