| Carex tenax | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Poales |
| Family: | Cyperaceae |
| Genus: | Carex |
| Species: | C. tenax |
| Binomial name | |
| Carex tenax | |
 | |
| Synonyms [1] | |
| |
Carex tenax, the wire sedge, is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyperaceae, native to Texas and the southeastern United States. [1] [2]
It is a perennial plant that gets up to 20 inches. The roots are fibrous. The alternate leaves are linear and parallel. The leaves are covered with short hairs. The inflorescence is a spike. The fruit are achenes. The flowers are really small and hard to see. [3] The perigynia is ovoid or obovoid and the hairs are not longer than 0.2 mm. It flowers between later spring and early summer. [4]
It is found in most of the counties in Western Florida including, Bay, Calhoun, Escambia, Gadsden, Holmes, Jackson, Liberty, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, Walton, and Washington counties. [5]
It has a global rank of G4, meaning apparently secure. It also has local state ranks, including, S1 in Texas and North Carolina meaning critically endangered, S2 in Alabama meaning endangered, S3 in Florida and Louisiana meaning imperiled, and S4 in Mississippi meaning apparently secure. Its population is in a decline of between 10-30%. [6]
Generally rare, it is found in the longleaf pine ecosystem. [7] It is commonly found in the elevations of between 0-1,000 feet. It is most commonly found in the sand habitat and the forest habitat. [8]
The longleaf pine is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as "yellow pine" or "long leaf yellow pine", although it is properly just one out of a number of species termed yellow pine. It reaches a height of 30–35 m (98–115 ft) and a diameter of 0.7 m (28 in). In the past, before extensive logging, they reportedly grew to 47 m (154 ft) with a diameter of 1.2 m (47 in). The tree is a cultural symbol of the Southern United States, being the official state tree of Alabama. This particular species is one of the eight pine tree species that falls under the "Pine" designation as the state tree of North Carolina.
Flatwoods, pineywoods, pine savannas and longleaf pine–wiregrass ecosystem are terms that refer to an ecological community in the southeastern coastal plain of North America. Flatwoods are an ecosystem maintained by wildfire or prescribed fire and are dominated by longleaf pine, and slash pine in the tree canopy and saw palmetto, gallberry and other flammable evergreen shrubs in the understory, along with a high diversity of herb species. It was once one of the dominant ecosystem types of southeastern North America. Although grasses and pines are characteristic of this system, the precise composition changes from west to east, that is, from Texas to Florida. In Louisiana, savannas even differ between the east and west side of the Mississippi River. The key factor maintaining this habitat type is recurring fire. Without fire, the habitat is eventually invaded by other species of woody plants.
De Soto National Forest, named for 16th-century Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, is 518,587 acres of pine forests in southern Mississippi. It is one of the most important protected areas for the biological diversity of the Gulf Coast ecoregion of North America.
Florida sand pine scrub is an endangered subtropical forest ecoregion found throughout Florida in the United States. It is found on coastal and inland sand ridges and is characterized by an evergreen xeromorphic plant community dominated by shrubs and dwarf oaks. Because the low-nutrient sandy soils do not retain moisture, the ecosystem is effectively an arid one. Wildfires infrequently occur in the Florida scrub. Most of the annual rainfall falls in summer. It is endangered by residential, commercial and agricultural development, with the largest remaining block in and around the Ocala National Forest. Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge also holds a high proportion of remaining scrub habitat, while the Archbold Biological Station near Lake Placid contains about 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) of scrub habitat and sponsors biological research on it.
The eastern woodlands of the United States covered large portions of the southeast side of the continent until the early 20th century. These were in a fire ecology of open grassland and forests with low ground cover of herbs and grasses.
Carex vesicaria is an essentially Holarctic species of sedge known as bladder sedge, inflated sedge, and blister sedge. It has been used to insulate footwear in Norway and among the Sami people, and for basketry in North America.
Chrysopsis delaneyi, or DeLaney's goldenaster, is one of the endemic species to the U.S. state of Florida, recently discovered in the genus Chrysopsis, a small group of herbaceous plants of the family Asteraceae, known commonly as the "golden asters" and primarily native and restricted to Florida.
Harperocallis flava, known by the common name Harper's beauty, is a species endemic to parts of Florida in the United States, where it is known mainly from the Apalachicola National Forest in the Panhandle. It is seriously endangered and has been on the United States' endangered species list since 1979.
Ribes americanum is a North American species of flowering plant in the gooseberry family known as wild black currant, American black currant, and eastern black currant. It is widespread in much of Canada and the northern United States.
Quercus incana is a species of oak known by the common names bluejack oak, upland willow oak, sandjack oak, and cinnamon oak. It is native to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains of the United States, from Virginia around Florida to Texas and inland to Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The longleaf pine ecosystem is a temperate coniferous forest ecosystem found within the Southern United States. Spanning pine savannas, sandhills and montane forests, it includes many rare plant and animal species, and is one of the most biodiverse in North America. Once one of the largest ecosystems in North America, from Virginia south to Florida and east to Texas, it now occupies less than a quarter of the original range. Degradation of the ecosystem is partially due to excessive timber harvesting, urbanization, and fire exclusion. Although the ecosystem is heavily fragmented at present, it still carries a great diversity of plant and animal species, many of which are endemic. A range of techniques, including planting longleaf pine seedlings, introducing prescribed burning regimens, managing native ground cover, and controlling invasive species within the ecosystem, are used in attempting to preserve this threatened ecosystem.
Carex plantaginea, commonly known as carex plantain, plaintainleaf sedge, or seersucker sedge, is a perennial herb of the sedge family.
Carex fraseriana is a perennial member of the sedge family with the common name Fraser's sedge. It was the only species of the genus Cymophyllus before it was re-transferred to Carex.
Carex austrina, known as southern sedge, is a species of sedge endemic to the southern and central United States.
Carex bulbostylis, known as the false hair sedge, is a species of sedge native to the southcentral and southeastern United States. It was first formally named by Kenneth Mackenzie in 1915. It is also known as the eastern narrowleaf sedge, thick style sedge, and globose sedge.
Quercus myrtifolia, the myrtle oak, is a North American species of oak. It is native to the southeastern United States. It is often found in coastal areas on sandy soils.
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 careyana, commonly known as Carey's sedge, is a species of sedge found in the eastern United States and Ontario, Canada.
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.
Carex bullata is a tussock-forming species of perennial sedge in the family Cyperaceae. It is native to south eastern parts of Canada and eastern parts of the United States. It has the common name of the button sedge.
