Flora of North America species comparison

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Carex sect. Lupulinae
Habit Plants cespitose or not, rarely colonial, short to long rhizomatous.
Culms

purplish or reddish, rarely brown at base.
Leaves

basal sheaths not fibrous;

sheath fronts membranous;

sheaths and larger leaves distinctly septate-nodulose;

blades V-shaped in cross section when young, glabrous.
Inflorescences

racemose, with 2–6(–9) spikes;

proximal bracts leaflike, sheathless or sheath less than 4 mm, shorter or longer than diam. of stem;

lateral spikes pistillate or the distal 1(–5) staminate or androgynous, globose, ovoid, or cylindric, pedunculate, prophyllate;

terminal spike staminate.
Perigynia

ascending to spreading, distinctly 15–20-veined, sometimes stipitate, inflated, ovate, ± round in cross section, 10–20 mm, base cuneate to rounded, apex tapering or abruptly beaked, glabrous or sparsely hairy;

beak conspicuously bidentate, teeth not more than 1 mm.
Achenes

trigonous, smaller than bodies of perigynia;

style persistent.
Proximal

pistillate scales with apex obtuse to acuminate, often awned.
Stigmas

3.

Carex sect. Lupulinae
Distribution
e North America
Discussion

Species 6 (6 in the flora).

Members of Carex sect. Lupulinae have the largest perygynia of all Carex. Mature achenes are critical for identification of some species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Sheath of the distal nonbracteal leaf 0–1.5(–2.5) cm; beak of perigynium 1.5–4.2 mm; achenes elliptic or obovate; spikes globose to short-ovoid.
→ 2
1. Sheath of the distal nonbracteal leaf usually 1.7 cm or longer; beak of perigynium 4.5–10 mm; achenes rhombic or nearly triangular; spikes ovoid to cylindric.
→ 3
2. Perigynia radiating out in all directions to form globular spike, rhombic-ovoid, base cuneate, 8–35 per spike.
C. grayi
2. Perigynia ascending to spreading or, sometimes, the basalmost reflexed to form an ovoid to obovoid spike, lanceoloid to ovoid, base convex, 1–12(–20) per spike.
C. intumescens
3. Achenes distinctly wider than long, widest beyond midle; perigynia stiffly spreading at right angles to rachis.
C. gigantea
3. Achenes as wide as long as or longer, widest near middle; perigynia ascending.
→ 4
4. Angles of achenes pointed, often knobbed, with hard, nipplelike points; achenes (2.2–)2.4–3.4 mm wide, often nearly as wide as long.
C. lupuliformis
4. Angles of achenes smoothly curved, not pointed or knobbed; achenes 1.7–2.6(–2.8) mm wide, longer than wide.
→ 5
5. Staminate peduncle 0.5–6(–7) cm, shorter than to exceeding distal pistillate spike by no more than 2 cm; plants loosely cespitose or not, short-rhizomatous.
C. lupulina
5. Staminate peduncle (3–)6–18 cm, usually exceeding distal pistillate spike by 2–12 cm; plants loosely colonial, long-rhizomatous.
C. louisianica
Source FNA vol. 23. Author: A. A. Reznicek.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Carex
Subordinate taxa
C. gigantea, C. grayi, C. intumescens, C. louisianica, C. lupuliformis, C. lupulina
Name authority Tuckerman ex J. Carey: Carices North. U.S., 562. (1847)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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