Carex glaucescens | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Poales |
Family: | Cyperaceae |
Genus: | Carex |
Species: | C. glaucescens |
Binomial name | |
Carex glaucescens Elliott | |
Carex glaucescens is a perennial sedge that belongs to the family Cyperaceae. [1] The common name of this sedge is the southern waxy sedge due to the blue-grey, waxy appearance of the sheaths and fruits. [2] [3] The term "glaucous" means "gleaming" or "grey" in Latin; [4] the specific epithet of C. glaucescens is derived from this term. Carex glaucescens is a native plant in North America and is an obligate wetland species in the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains, Eastern Mountains and Piedmont, and the Great Plains. [1]
Carex glaucescens is a graminoid, [1] meaning they have a grass-like [2] appearance. This species begins blooming in the early summer months, and begins developing fruits into the late summer months around July and August. [3] [5] Carex glaucescens features a staminate spikelet at the top of the plant which fertilizes the pistillate spikelets below it. [3] The fruits are born on pendulous pistillate spikelets which are covered by translucent papilla, which gives the fruit sac its glaucous appearance. [3] [5] Inside the fruit sac are ellipsoid achenes, the seed of the plant. [3]
Carex jamesii, known as James's sedge or grass sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America from Minnesota east to New York and south to Oklahoma and South Carolina. It occurs in mesic hardwood forests and produces fruits from early May to mid July. It has two to four perigynia that are subtended by leaf-like pistillate scales. Its seeds are dispersed by ants.
Glaucous is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull, glaucous-winged gull, glaucous macaw, and glaucous tanager.
Carex limosa is a species of sedge known as bog-sedge, mud sedge, and shore sedge.
Dulichium is a monotypic genus of sedge containing the single species Dulichium arundinaceum, which is known by the common name threeway sedge. This is an aquatic or semi-aquatic plant of the lakes, streams, and ponds of the United States and Canada It has a wide distribution across the two countries, though noticeably absent from the Dakotas and from the Southwestern Deserts.
Carex alma is a species of sedge known by the common name sturdy sedge. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in moist spots in a number of habitat types. This sedge forms a thick clump of thin stems up to 90 centimeters in length and long, thready leaves. The leaves have basal sheaths with conspicuous red coloration, often spotting. The inflorescence is a dense to open cluster of many spikelets occurring both at the ends of stems and at nodes. Each cluster is up to 15 centimeters long and 1 to 2 wide. The plant is sometimes dioecious, with an individual sedge bearing either male or female flowers. The female, pistillate flowers have white or white-edged bracts. The male, staminate flowers have visible anthers 2 millimeters long or longer. The fruit is coated in a sac called a perigynium which is gold to dark brown in color and has a characteristic bit of spongy tissue at the base.
Carex aurea is a species of sedge known by the common name golden sedge. It is native to much of North America, including most of Canada and the western, upper Midwest, and northeastern United States. It grows in wet habitat, often on soils of a basic pH.
Carex concinnoides is a species of sedge known by the common name northwestern sedge. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to California, where it can be found in moist or dry habitat, often in woodland and forested slopes, on silty and clay soils. This sedge produces loose clumps of stems up to about 35 centimeters in maximum height from long rhizomes. The leaves are thick but narrow, sickle-shaped, and pale green in color. Inflorescences occur at the stem tips, and some pistillate inflorescences grow from nodes along the stem. The spikelets have purplish bracts. The pistillate flowers have four stigmas on each pistil, an identifying characteristic. The fruit is coated in a sac called a perigynium, which is white to light brown in color, purple-tipped, and covered in hairs.
Carex filifolia is a species of sedge known by the common name threadleaf sedge. It is native to western North America and grows on slopes, eroded areas, gravel, and dry habitats.
Carex nebrascensis is a species of sedge known as Nebraska sedge.
Carex simulata is a species of sedge known by the common name analogue sedge.
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 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.
Carex lutea is a rare species of sedge known by the common names golden sedge and sulphur sedge. It is endemic to North Carolina, where it is known only from Pender and Onslow Counties in the Cape Fear River watershed. There are nine populations. The plant was discovered in 1991 and described to science as a new species in 1994, and it has not been thoroughly studied nor completely surveyed yet. Its rarity was obvious by 2002, however, when it was federally listed as an endangered species.
Carex arctata, known as drooping woodland sedge, is a species of sedge native to eastern North America. It is sometimes called black sedge, compressed sedge, or drooping wood sedge. It occurs from Manitoba to the Maritimes in Canada, south to northwestern North Carolina, and west to Minnesota. Carex arctata grows in bogs, hardwood forests, and spruce forests.
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 tomentosa, the downey-fruited sedge, is dispersed throughout Central Europe in scattered groups and is a rarely found member of the family Cyperaceae.
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 magellanica, or the boreal bog sedge, is a Carex species that is native to North America. It is listed as endangered in Connecticut.
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.