Carex oronensis

Last updated

Carex oronensis
Status TNC G3.svg
Vulnerable  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
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. oronensis
Binomial name
Carex oronensis

Carex oronensis is a species of sedge known by the common name Orono sedge. It is endemic to Maine in the United States, where it occurs mainly in the Penobscot River Valley. [1] It is the only plant that is endemic to the state of Maine. [2] The type locality is Orono. [2]

Contents

The Orono sedge produces clumps of stems up to one meter tall. There are three to four leaf blades per stem. Each measures 18 to 23 centimeters long. The copper-colored inflorescence is a few centimeters long and contains several spikes of flowers. Flowering occurs in June and July. [3]

This plant grows in wetlands and in less wet areas. It is often found in disturbed areas, such as hay fields. Plants in sunny, open areas grow larger than those growing in shade. Associated plants include several species of Carex, such as C. scoparia , C. tenera , and C. tincta , plus Rumex acetosella , Leucanthemum vulgare , Ranunculus acris , Anaphalis margaritacea , Achillea millefolium , Phleum pratense , Vicia cracca , Juncus spp., Luzula spp., Panicum spp., Solidago spp., Rubus idaeus , and Spiraea alba .

This plant is known from six counties in Maine (Aroostook, Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, and Waldo), [4] and there are about 58 populations known. The populations are mostly small; [2] only a few populations have more than 60 individuals. [1] Threats to the species include loss of habitat. Most of the populations are on privately owned land. [2]

Related Research Articles

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

Carex comosa is a species of sedge known as longhair sedge and bristly sedge. It is native to North America, where it grows in western and eastern regions of Canada and the United States, and parts of Mexico. It grows in wet places, including meadows and many types of wetlands. Tolerates deeper water than most common species and is good for retention basins. This sedge produces clumps of triangular stems up to 100 or 120 centimeters tall from short rhizomes. The inflorescence is up to 35 centimeters long and has a long bract which is longer than the spikes. It is a cluster of several cylindrical spikes. The scales over the fruits taper into long, thin awns.

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

Carex diandra is a species of sedge known by the common names lesser tussock-sedge and lesser panicled sedge.

<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 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.

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

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.

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

Carex specuicola is a rare species of sedge known by the common name Navajo sedge. It is native to a small section of the Colorado Plateau in the United States, its distribution straddling the border between Utah and Arizona, and completely within the Navajo Nation. There are several populations but they are limited to a specific type of habitat. The plants grow from the sides of steep, often vertical cliffs of red Navajo Sandstone, in areas where water trickles from the rock. It occurs at elevations between 5,700 and 6,000 feet, usually in shady spots. Though it is not a grass, the sedge grows in inconspicuous clumps resembling tufts of grass sticking out of the rock face. When the sedge was federally listed as a threatened species in 1985, it was known from only three populations in Coconino County, Arizona, with no more than 700 plants existing. The species has since been observed in northeastern Arizona and San Juan County, Utah.

<i>Geum radiatum</i> Species of flowering plant

Geum radiatum is a rare species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names spreading avens, Appalachian avens, and cliff avens. It is native to the region of the border between Tennessee and North Carolina in the southeastern United States, where there are eleven known populations remaining. The plant was federally listed as an endangered species in 1990.

<i>Lespedeza leptostachya</i> Species of plant

Lespedeza leptostachya is a rare species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names prairie lespedeza and prairie bush-clover. It occurs in the Upper Midwest region of the United States. The flowers are creamy-white to purplish and arranged into a narrow terminal spikes.

<i>Lomatium cookii</i> Species of flowering plant

Lomatium cookii is a rare species of flowering plant in the carrot family known by the common names Cook's lomatium and agate desertparsley. It is endemic to Oregon in the United States, where it grows in only two valleys. It is a federally listed endangered species.

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

Carex concinna is a species of sedge known by the common names low northern sedge, northern elegant sedge, beauty sedge, and beautiful sedge. It is native to northern North America, where it occurs across Canada and in high elevations in the northern contiguous United States.

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

Carex garberi, commonly known as elk sedge and Garber's sedge, is a species of sedge native to North America.

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

Carex vaginata is a species of sedge known by the common name sheathed sedge.

<i>Carex barrattii</i> Species of sedge

Carex barrattii is a species of sedge known as Barratt's sedge. It is endemic to the United States, where it occurs on the Atlantic Coastal Plain from Connecticut south to Georgia and Alabama. It also occurs in the southern Appalachians.

<i>Chrysosplenium iowense</i> Species of flowering plant

Chrysosplenium iowense is a species of flowering plant in the saxifrage family known by the common name Iowa golden-saxifrage. It is native to North America, where it is "primarily a Canadian species", occurring from the northern Northwest Territories south to British Columbia and east to Manitoba. There are also disjunct, relictual occurrences within the United States, in the Driftless Area of Minnesota and Iowa.

<i>Pleuropogon oregonus</i> Species of grass

Pleuropogon oregonus is a species of grass known by the common name Anyastum Grass ('on-ya-st-uhm').

<i>Potentilla basaltica</i> Species of flowering plant

Potentilla basaltica is a species of flowering plant in the rose family known by the common names Soldier Meadows cinquefoil and basalt cinquefoil. It is endemic to a small area of the Modoc Plateau and Warner Mountains in northeastern California and northwestern Nevada.

Draba exunguiculata is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names clawless draba and Grays Peak draba. It is endemic to Colorado in the United States.

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

Carex aboriginum is a species of sedge endemic to Idaho in the western United States, known as Indian Valley sedge. It was not observed in the wild between 1910, when it was first described, and 1999. Until its rediscovery, C. aboriginum was considered the only plant native to Idaho to have become extinct, and it remains one of the state's rarest and most endangered plant species.

<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.

Carex lemmonii, or Lemmon's sedge, is a plant in the sedge family, and is endemic to California. Carex albida is now considered a synonym, but was previously thought to be a separate species; such plants have the common name white sedge.

References

  1. 1 2 Carex oronensis. The Nature Conservancy.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Carex oronensis. Archived October 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine Center for Plant Conservation.
  3. Carex oronensis. Flora of North America.
  4. Carex oronensis. Maine Department of Conservation, Natural Areas Program.

Further reading