Compilation
Carex maritima

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Name

Identification
Carex maritima O.F. Müll. [family CYPERACEAE ] Verified by Lye, K.A., 2008 Carex paleacea Wahlenb. [family CYPERACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Lye, K.A., 2008
Related name
  • Carex oligantha
  • Carex paleacea
  • Carex incurva
  • Carex misera
  • Carex melanocystis
  • Carex macrosolen
  • Carex psammogoea
  • Carex psammogaea
  • Carex maritima
Common name
  • Carex maritime, Flora of North America Vol. 23

Flora

Entry for Carex maritima Gunnerus [family CYPERACEAE]
Herbarium
Flora of North America (FNA)
Collection
Flora of North America
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of North America, Vol 23,
Names
Carex maritima Gunnerus [family CYPERACEAE], Fl. Norveg., 2: 131. 1772
Carex incurva Lightfoot [family CYPERACEAE]
Carex maritima var. setina (H. Christ ex Scheutz) Fernald [family CYPERACEAE]
Carex maritima subsp. yukonensis A. E. Porsild [family CYPERACEAE]
Treatment Author(s)
Peter W. Ball
A. A. Reznicek
Information
Plants colonial. Culms usually curved, bluntly trigonous, 1–25(–44) cm smooth-angled distally. Leaves: basal sheaths brown to dark brown; ligules 0.3–1.2 mm; blades involute, usually ± equaling culms, 0.5–2 mm wide. Inflorescences 0.5–1.6(–2) cm; spikes ca. (1–)3–7, essentially indistinguishable in dense ovoid to hemispheric head. Pistillate scales pale brown to dark brown, usually with broad whitish hyaline margins, broadly ovate to nearly orbicular, shorter than perigynia, apex obtuse to acute, body shiny, ± translucent. Anthers 1.1–2 mm. Perigynia pale yellowish brown proximally, darker brown on beak and distally, essentially veinless to finely 3–12-veined abaxially, essentially veinless adaxially, ± inflated, ovate to broadly ovate, (3–)3.2–5.1 × (1.4–)1.6–2.3(–2.7) mm, papery or leathery, dull to satiny; stipe 0.2–0.7 mm; beak 0.5–1 mm, scabrous-margined or, occasionally, smooth.
Phenology Fruiting
jun
summer
jul
aug
Altitude range
0–900 m;
Distribution
GreenlandSouth AmericaEurasia.USA AlaskaCanada Alta.Canada Man.Canada Nfld. and Labr.Canada N.W.T.Canada NunavutCanada Ont.Canada Que.Canada Sask.Canada Yukon
Discussion
The inland collections of Carex maritima from Manitoba and Alberta are introductions.
Carex maritima is an extremely widespread and variable species. On exposed headlands, plants can be very tiny in contrast to robust individuals on richer river shores or some inland lakeshores. Very small plants with extremely narrow leaves from coastal regions of Newfoundland have been named C. maritima var. setina, and unusually large plants from the shores of Kluane Lake, Yukon Territory, have been named C. maritima subsp. yukonensis. These are both regarded as environmentally derived, representing two extremes of the variation.
A few specimens from Greenland, Newfoundland, and Quebec appear to be hybrids between Carex maritima and Carex gynocrates (= C. ×langeana Fernald). Carex dutillyi O’Neill & Duman, described from Churchill, Manitoba, is probably also a hybrid of the same parentage.

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