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Common Wisconsin Species of Carex Subgenus Vignea
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Common Wisconsin Species of Carex Subgenus Vignea 170 FIELD GUIDE TO WISCONSIN CARICES 101. CAREX GYNOCRATES—NORTHERN BOG SEDGE section Physoglochin Greek: female and ruling, presumably referring to the distinctive pistillate spike on female plants. The solitary pistillate spikes with plump, dark, divergent perigynia are highly distinctive. Flowers May, fruits June to July. Plants clonal, shoots arising singly or in dense tufts; rhizomes threadlike, 1 mm wide; C. exilis also has short, inconspicuous rhizomes. Carex gynocrates is considered by some authors to range to East Asia (Siberia), but other authors consider the Siberian populations a separate species. [54.224.52.210] Project MUSE (2024-03-30 07:57 GMT) Common Wisconsin Species of Carex Subgenus Vignea 171 Plant and pistillate spike of Carex gynocrates. The plump, divergent perigynia make the plant unmistakable in our flora. 103. CAREX SICCATA—RUNNING PRAIRIE SEDGE section Ammoglochin The name Carex foenea is misapplied to this species in many treatments. The true C. foenea [141] is in section Ovales. Latin: dry. The unkempt appearance of the inXorescence and the long-creeping rhizomes make Carex siccata distinct in its favored sandy locales. Flowers May, fruits June to July. Plants colonial, shoots arising singly; rhizomes brown, scaly, long-creeping. Culms 0.1–1 m tall, roughened on the angles. Leaves stiff, the inner band of the sheath hyaline at least at the summit, the blade 1–3 (occasionally 4) mm wide. Spikes pistillate, staminate, gynecandrous, or androgynous, a mix of these common in a single inXorescence, overlapping or the lower distinct. Pistillate scales reddish brown, shorter than to equaling the perigynium, often covering much of the perigynium body. Perigynia narrowly winged, veinless or few-veined on the inner face, strongly veined on the back, variable in shape and venation. Habitat and state range. Most common in dry sand prairies, black oak and jack pine barrens, and sandy woods, ranging to occasional wet prairies; mostly in the southern half of the state but ranging as far north as Douglas and Marinette counties. Typical associates include Carex muehlenbergii, pussytoes (Antennaria spp.), wormwood (Artemisia campestris), butterXy milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), bastard toadXax (Comandra umbellata), sweet-fern (Comptonia peregrina), prairie coreopsis (Coreopsis palmata), frostweeds (Helianthemum spp.), round-headed bush-clover (Lespedeza capitata ), puccoons (Lithospermum spp.), lupine (Lupinus perennis), porcupine grass (Stipa spartea). Similar species. Running prairie sedge is occasionally confused with two species. Carex sartwellii (Running marsh sedge [102]) generally grows in sedge meadows and wet prairies and thus usually does not overlap in habitat with C. siccata. Carex sartwellii forms tall vegetative culms, the inner band of the leaf sheaths green and distinctly veined. Like C. siccata, this species reproduces by rhizomes and often forms large clones dominated by vegetative shoots. The more distantly related C. praegracilis (freeway sedge [100]) is a long-rhizomatous, western North American species that has spread rapidly eastward since 1900. Freeway sedge has been collected along a few roadsides in Wisconsin. Distinguish it from both of the “running sedges” by the fact that freeway sedge generally has unisexual inXorescences. The species does not grow in wetlands. It could grow with C. siccata in dry disturbed soils. 172 FIELD GUIDE TO WISCONSIN CARICES Common Wisconsin Species of Carex Subgenus Vignea 173 (a) Plant, (b) inflorescence, and (c) perigynium of Carex siccata. Note the elongate rhizome. (d) Leaf sheath of C. sartwellii, showing the distinctive venation of the inner band. 104. CAREX VULPINOIDEA—FOX SEDGE section Multiflorae Latin: fox. One of Wisconsin’s most common wetland sedges, easily recognized by its straight, narrow, compound inXorescence with numerous needlelike bracts as well as the tight leaf sheaths that are corrugated on the inner band. Flowers May to June, fruits June to July, perigynia mostly falling by September. Plants strongly cespitose. Culms Wrm, not spongy or easily crushed, scabrous , the margins unwinged, 0.1–1 m tall, 2 mm thick. Leaf sheaths tight, the inner band corrugated. Leaf blades longer than the culms, ≤ 5 mm wide; ligules rounded or notched at the apex. InXorescence compound, often cylindrical , 3–10 cm long; bracts setaceous. Spikes androgynous, at least the lowest branching and often separate. Perigynia green to brown at maturity, tapering gradually to the beak, 2–3 mm long, veinless on the inner face; beak one-third to half the total perigynium length. Habitat and state range. Common in marshes, wet forest edges, alluvial woods, lake and stream edges; occasional in wet prairies, fens, and white cedar swamps; infrequent in bogs and standing water throughout the state. Fox sedge tolerates disturbance...