Carex baileyi

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Carex baileyi
Carex baileyi.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Cyperaceae
Genus: Carex
Section: Carex sect. Vesicariae
Species:
C. baileyi
Binomial name
Carex baileyi
Britton
CABA7 range.png

Carex baileyi is a sedge in section Vesicariae the genus Carex (true sedges) native to the Appalachian Mountains in Eastern North America. [1] It is commonly called Bailey's sedge. [2] Carex baileyi was named in honor of Liberty Hyde Bailey by its discoverer, Nathaniel_Lord_Britton.

Contents

Habitat

Carex baileyi is an obligate wetland plant which will grow exclusively in wetland areas such as swamps and wet woods. It also occurs in sedge meadows, stream shores, and ditches. It tends to prefer growing from acidic soils [3]

Description

Carex baileyi is a perennial grass-like herb which grows in clumps much like bunch-grass. [3] The stems grow to 65cm tall, and are triangular like all sedge stems. The bases of the stems are reddish in color. The inflorescence consists of 1-2 pistilate (female) spikes 10-40mm long x 8-13mm wide, and 1 staminate (male) spike at the tip of the stem 15-30mm long x 1.5-2.5mm wide. [4] The male spike is typically upright, whereas the female spikes tend to droop or at least hang horizontal. [5]

Like most sedges in Carex subgenus Carex, the flowers have a three-branched pistil, and produce an achene with a triangular cross-section. The perigynia is 5-7mm long with a long beak comprising about half of the perigynia length. The beak of the perigynia has two small teeth at the tip about .5mm long. The body of the perigynia is inflated around the achene and has 5-9 nerves. The achenes (fruits) are yellow-brown color and 1.5-2mm long x 1mm wide. [4] Below each perigynia is a pistilate scale, this scale is accuminate or rough awned at the tip and between 2.9-9.8mm long x .3-.9mm wide. [3]

Carex baileyi is very closely related to, and may be confused with the more common Carex lurida . These two species overlap significantly in their ranges but differ in structure; C. baileyi is more delicate, having smaller leaves and smaller spikes. [3] Specifically, C. baileyi has spikes .8-1.5cm thick and leaves 2.4-4mm wide, whereas C. lurida has spikes 1.5-2.2 cm thick and leaves 4-11.5mm wide. [5]

Taxonomy

DNA evidence has raised doubt as to the taxonomic circumscription of C. baileyi. It was found that there are no consistent differences genetically between Carex lurida and Carex baileyi, however, further research is needed. [6]

Endangered status

Carex baileyi is listed as endangered in Massachusetts, threatened in New Hampshire and of special concern in Connecticut and Maine

Related Research Articles

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Carex lasiocarpa is a broadly distributed species of wetland sedge sometimes known as woollyfruit sedge or slender sedge. It is considered a species of Least Concern by the IUCN Red List due to its extensive range with many stable populations.

<i>Carex pendula</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex pendula is a large sedge of the genus Carex. It occurs in woodland, scrubland, hedges and beside streams, preferring damp, heavy clay soils. It is sometimes grown as a garden plant because of its distinctive appearance.

<i>Carex atherodes</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex atherodes is a species of sedge known by the common name wheat sedge. It is native to Eurasia and much of North America including most of Canada and the United States. It is a very common wetland plant across the American Midwest and areas west. It grows in moist and wet habitat, such as marshes and moist prairie land, and it may grow in shallow water. This sedge produces triangular, hollow stems 30 to 120 centimeters tall. The leaves are hairy, especially on the lower parts, and the leaf sheath is tinted with reddish purple. The inflorescence is up to 60 centimeters long and made up of several spikes; those spikes near the tip are usually staminate, and those lower in the inflorescence are usually pistillate. The tip of each fruit has two or more long, thin teeth.

<i>Carex hystericina</i> Species of plant

Carex hystericina is a species of sedge known by the common names bottlebrush sedge and porcupine sedge. It is native to much of North America including most of southern Canada and most of the United States. It grows in wet habitat such as wetlands and riverbanks, especially on calcareous soils. In the right conditions it can become very abundant and even weedy. This sedge produces dense or loose clumps of triangular stems up to a meter tall from short rhizomes. The inflorescence is several centimeters long and is accompanied by a bract which is longer than the spikes. The fruits are coated in perigynia with pointed, toothed tips. It is highly recommend for sedge meadow restorations.

<i>Carex leptalea</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex leptalea is a species of sedge known by the common names bristly-stalked sedge and flaccid sedge. It is native to much of North America including most of Canada, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. It only grows in wetlands. This sedge produces dense clusters of thin stems up to 70 centimeters tall from a network of branching rhizomes. The thin, deep green leaves are soft, hairless, and sometimes drooping. The inflorescence is up to 16 millimeters long but only 2 to 3 millimeters wide, and is yellow-green in color. There are only a few perigynia on each spikelet, and they are green and veined.

  1. Carex leptalea subsp. harperi(Fernald) W.Stone - southeastern US from Texas and Florida north to Missouri and Pennsylvania
  2. Carex leptalea subsp. leptalea - widespread from Alaska east to Nunavut and south to California and Dominican Republic
  3. Carex leptalea subsp. pacificaCalder & Roy L.Taylor - Washington State, British Columbia, southeastern Alaska
<i>Carex molesta</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex molesta is a species of sedge known by the common name troublesome sedge. It is native to eastern and central North America, where it grows in varied wet and dry habitats, performs equally well in full sun and partial shade, including disturbed areas such as roadsides. It is an introduced species and often a weed in California.

<i>Carex secta</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex secta is a sedge from the Cyperaceae family that is endemic to New Zealand. It grows in wetlands. Its Māori names include purei, pukio and makura.

Carex klamathensis is a rare species of sedge known by the common name Klamath sedge. It is known from 15 or fewer populations in southern Oregon and three populations in the Klamath Region of northern California. It was described to science only in 2007. Its habitat includes fens and other wet habitat, on serpentine soils. It was discovered independently by botanists Peter Zika and Lawrence Janeway.

<i>Carex distans</i> Species of plant

Carex distans, commonly known as distant sedge, is a plant species in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is native to Europe and North Africa. It is part of a complex of similar species that occur across Eurasia. Its relatives include Carex diluta of central Asia, which has also introduced to North America in Montana. C. distans has been introduced to US states including Maryland and Pennsylvania. More recently, it was found in Oregon. There is a report from Victoria, Australia as well.

<i>Carex lacustris</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex lacustris, known as lake sedge, is a tufted grass-like perennial of the sedge family (Cyperaceae), native to southern Canada and the northern United States. C. lacustris us an herbaceous surface-piercing plant that grows in water up to 50 cm (1.6 ft) deep, and grows 50–150 cm (1.6–4.9 ft) tall. It grows well in marshes and swampy woods of the boreal forest, along river and lake shores, in ditches, marshes, swamps, and other wetland habitat. It grows on muck, sedge peat, wet sand or silt, in filtered or full sunlight.

<i>Carex conjuncta</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex conjuncta, known as soft fox sedge, is a species of sedge that was first formally named by Francis Boott in 1862. It is endemic to the central and eastern United States.

<i>Carex eburnea</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex eburnea, known as ivory sedge, ebony sedge, and bristleleaf or bristle-leaved sedge, is a small and slender sedge native to North America, from Alaska and Newfoundland south to central Mexico.

<i>Carex lupuliformis</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex lupuliformis, common name false hop sedge, is a perennial sedge of sporadic distribution found in the floodplain forests and ephemeral woodland ponds of central and eastern North America. The species typically produces four to seven leaves with sheaths of distal leaves of 3 to 21 cm whose ligules are rounded to triangular. Carex lupuliformis blooms between early June and early October, typically with "two to six proximal female spikes, distal spikes usually crowded, ascending, densely flowered, usually cylindric, much longer than broad; one to two terminal male spikes." Fruiting occurs between late July through early October. Fruit is described as "perigynia ascending to spreading, inflated, strongly veined, sessile, lance-ovoid, shiny, glabrous; beak conical; achenes stipitate, broadly diamond-shaped, scarcely if at all longer than wide, concave faces, angles thickened, prominently knobbed with hard, nipplelike points."

<i>Carex sprengelii</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex sprengelii, known as Sprengel's sedge and long-beaked sedge, is a sedge with hanging seed heads, native to North America.

<i>Carex blanda</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex blanda, the common woodland sedge or eastern woodland sedge, is a species of sedge native to a wide variety of habitats in the eastern and central United States and Canada.

<i>Carex davisii</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex davisii, known as Davis' sedge or awned graceful sedge, is a species of Carex native to North America. It is listed as an endangered, threatened, or species of concern across much of edge of its range. It was named in the 1820s by Lewis David de Schweinitz and John Torrey in honor of Emerson Davis (1798–1866), a Massachusetts educator and "enthusiastic student of the genus" Carex.

<i>Carex brevior</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex brevior, known as shortbeak sedge and plains oval sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America. The specific epithet brevior means "shorter" in Latin.

Carex arctogena is a member of the sedge family (Cyperaceae) which grows in high alpine areas. It is one of the few "bipolar" species; it has populations in Greenland, Scandinavia, Russia, Canada and southern South America. Plants in the far north and south appear to be genetically identical, having taken advantage of a similar niches on opposite ends of the globe.

<i>Carex bicolor</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex bicolor, the bicoloured sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America, Northern Europe and Northern Asia. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the plant's conservation status as being of least concern because it has a widespread distribution and faces no particular threats.

Carex ozarkana, the Ozark sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyperaceae, native to the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

References

  1. Weakley, Alan (2015). Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States. Chapel Hill North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Herbarium.
  2. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Carex baileyi". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Ball, Peter W.; Reznicek, A. A. (2002). "Carex baileyi". In Flora of North America Editorial Committee (ed.). Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA). Vol. 23. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved 1 May 2020 via eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA.
  4. 1 2 Mackenzie, Kenneth Kent; Rickett, Harold William; Creutzburg, Harry Charles (1940). North American Cariceae. New York Botanical Garden.
  5. 1 2 Rhoads, Ann; Block, Timothy (5 September 2007). The Plants of Pennsylvania (2 ed.). Philadelphia Pa: University of Pennsylvania press. ISBN   978-0-8122-4003-0.
  6. Grima, Peter P. (2018). "Investigating the putative hybrid, Carex baileyi × Carex lurida" (PDF). Rhodora. Retrieved 1 May 2020.