| Carex brevior | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Cyperaceae |
| Genus: | Carex |
| Subgenus: | Carex subg. Vignea |
| Section: | Carex sect. Ovales |
| Species: | C. brevior |
| Binomial name | |
| Carex brevior | |
| Synonyms [2] | |
| |
Carex brevior, known as shortbeak sedge [3] and plains oval sedge, [4] [5] is a species of sedge native to North America. [6] The specific epithet brevior means "shorter" in Latin. [5]
Carex brevior forms dense tufts with short-prolonged rhizomes, the clumps sometimes appearing elongated. [6] The flowering culms are 15–120 cm (5.9–47.2 in) tall with 3 to 5 leaves per culm. Few vegetative culms are produced and unlike some other sedges, they are not strikingly 3-ranked. The leaf sheaths are white and papery and the ligule is 2.2–3.3 mm (0.087–0.13 in) long. The inflorescence is open, brown, up to 6.5 cm (2.6 in) long with between 3 and 7 distant, distinct spikes per culm. Each spike is ovoid or ellipsoide, typically attenuate at the base and acute or rounded at the tip, with 15–40 lenticular perigynia. The perigynia are green to reddish brown, orbiculate to broadly ovate, and typically 3.4–4.8 mm (0.13–0.19 in) long and 2.3–3.2 mm (0.091–0.126 in) across (1.2–1.8 times as long as wide). [6]
Carex brevior flowers in mid-May and early June, [5] fruiting in the early to mid summer. [6]
A member of Carex sect. Ovales, it is commonly confused with other closely related species such as Carex molesta , C. molestiformis , and C. cumulata. These species share general fruiting characteristics, with "broad perigynia that tend to be widest near the middle of the body and achenes that are broadly elliptic to round". [7] [5] C. cumulata has perigynia that are more rhombic due to its narrowed wings beyond the middle of the perigynia and the nearly cuneate base. [5]
A heteroecious rust fungus, Puccinia dioicae , infects the foliage of Carex brevior, forming brownish spots and blemishes. [5]
Carex brevior has a broad distribution in North America, encompassing most of the continental United States and southern Canada, south to Tamaulipas, Mexico. [6] Its habitats include dry-mesic to dry prairies, meadows, along railroads, and open woodlands, usually in sandy soils and commonly in areas of disturbance. [6] [8] [5] Specimens found in disturbed habitats in parts of the Southeastern United States may be introduced populations. [6]
The Iroquois used the plant as a gynecological aid, where a "compound infusion of [the] plant [was] taken for evacuation of the placenta." [9]
Carex pauciflora, known as few-flowered sedge, is a perennial species of sedge in the family Cyperaceae native to bogs and fens in cool temperate, subarctic, and mountainous regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The specific epithet pauciflora refers to the Latin term for 'few flowered'.
Carex pensylvanica is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family commonly called Pennsylvania sedge. Other common names include early sedge, common oak sedge, and yellow sedge.
Carex sect. Ovales is a section of the genus Carex, containing around 85 species of sedge. It is the most diverse section of the genus in North America, containing 72 species:
Carex sylvatica is a species of sedge found in deciduous woodlands across Europe. It typically reaches 60 cm (24 in) tall, and has an inflorescence made up of 3–5 pendent female spikes and a single male spike. It is also used as a garden plant, and has been introduced to North America and New Zealand.
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.
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.
Carex sprengelii, known as Sprengel's sedge and long-beaked sedge, is a sedge with hanging seed heads, native to North America.
Carex blanda, the common woodland sedge or eastern woodland sedge, is a sedge native to a wide variety of habitats in the eastern and central United States and Canada.
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.
Carex bromoides, known as brome-like sedge, brome-sedge, and dropseed of the woods, is a species of sedge in the genus Carex. It is native to North America.
Carex woodii, known as pretty sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America.
Carex bicknellii, known as Bicknell's sedge and copper-shouldered oval sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America. Carex bicknellii grows in small clumps with fewer than 25 flowering stems per clump. It is found in mesic to dry prairies, savannas, and open woodlands.
Carex albolutescens, known as greenish-white sedge or greenwhite sedge is a species of sedge native primarily to the lower Midwest and Eastern United States. C. albolutescens grows in wetlands, with an affinity toward acidic soils in swamps and woodlands.
Carex bebbii, Bebb's sedge, is a species of sedge native to the northern United States and Canada. Carex bebbii grows in a variety of wetland habitats such as lakeshores, streambanks, ditches, meadows, swamps, and seeps. It forms dense tufts with culms up to 90 centimeters tall.
Carex tenera, known as quill sedge, is a species of sedge native to the northern United States and Canada.
Carex flexuosa, commonly called flexuous white-edge sedge, or Rudge's white-edge sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. It is native to the eastern North America, where it is found in eastern Canada, the northeastern and midwestern United States, and southward in the Appalachian Mountains. Its natural habitat is in upland forests, rock outcrops, and Appalachian balds. It is typically found in areas with acidic soil.
Carex careyana, commonly known as Carey's sedge, is a species of sedge found in the eastern United States and Ontario, Canada.
Carex baileyi is a sedge in section Vesicariae the genus Carex native to the Appalachian mountains in Eastern North America. It is commonly called Bailey's sedge. Carex baileyi was named in honor of Liberty Hyde Bailey by its discoverer, Nathaniel_Lord_Britton.
Carex deweyanaDewey's sedge, short-scale sedge, is a species of sedge native to Canada and the United States.
Carex peckii, Peck's sedge, Peck's oak sedge, or white-tinged sedge, is a species of sedge native to Canada and the United States.