Cyperaceae: Sedges

Series Preface

XI Series Preface The purpose of the four books in the Aquatic and Standing Water Plants of the Central Midwest series is to provide illustrated guides to plants of the central Midwest that may live at least three months a year in water, though a particular plant may not necessarily live in standing water during a given year. The states covered by these guides include Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, and Nebraska, except for the Cumberland Mountain region of eastern Kentucky, which is in a different biological province. Since 1990, I have taught week-long wetland plant identification courses in all of these states on several occasions. The most difficult task has been to decide what plants to include and what plants to exclude from these books. Three groups of plants are within the guidelines of these manuals. One group includes those aquatic plants that spend their entire life with their vegetative parts either completely submerged or at least floating on the water’s surface. This group includes obvious submerged aquatics such as Ceratophyllum, the Najadaceae, the Potamogetonaceae, Elodea, Cabomba, Brasenia, Nymphaea, some species of Ranunculus, Utricularia, and a few others. Plants in a second group are called emergents. These plants typically are rooted under water, with their vegetative parts standing above the water surface. Many of these plants can live for a long period of time, even their entire life, out of the water. Included in this group are Sagittaria, Alisma, Peltandra, Pontederia, Saururus, Justicia, and several others. The most difficult group of plants that I had to consider is made up of those wetland plants that live most or all of their lives out of the water, but which on occasion can live at least three months in water. I concluded that I would include within these books only those species that I personally have observed in standing water for at least three months during a year, or which have been reported in the literature as living in standing water. In this last group, for example, I have included Poa annua, since Yatskievich, in his Steyermark’s Flora of Missouri (1999), indicates that this species may occur in standing water, even though I have not observed this myself. I have included most plants of bogs, fens, and marshes if I have observed these plants actually to be in water. It is likely that I failed to include some plants that should have been included, but that I had not observed myself. The nomenclature I have used in these books reflects my own opinion as to what I believe the scientific names should be. If these names differ from those used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I have indicated this. A partial list of synonymy is included for each species, particularly accounting for synonyms that have been in use for several decades. After the description of each plant, I have indicated the habitats in which the plant may be found, followed by the states in which the plant occurs. I have indicated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife wetland designation for each species for the states that each occurs in. In 1988, the National Wetlands Inventory Section of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attempted to give a wetland designation for every plant occurring in the wild in the United States. The states covered by these aquatic manuals occur in three regions of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Kentucky and Ohio are in region 1; Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri are in region 3; and Kansas and Nebraska are in region 5. Definitions of the Fish and Wildlife Service wetland categories are: OBL (Obligate Wetland). Occur almost always under natural conditions in wetlands, at least 99% of the time. FACW (Facultative Wetland). Usually occur in wetlands 67%– 99% of the time), but occasionally found in non-wetlands. FAC (Facultative). Equally likely to occur in wetlands or non-wetlands 34%–66% of the time. FACU (Facultative Upland). Usually occur in non-wetlands 67%–99% of the time, but occasionally found in wetlands. UPL (Upland). Occur in uplands at least 99% of the time, but under natural conditions not found in wetlands. NI (Not Indicated). Due to insufficient information. A plus or minus sign (+ or -) may appear after FACW, FAC, and FACU. The plus means leaning toward a wetter condition; the minus means leaning toward a drier condition. Although the Fish and Wildlife Service made changes to the wetland status of several species in an...