Flora of North America species comparison

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Carex sect. Porocystis
Habit Plants cespitose, short-rhizomatous.
Culms

red-brown at base, rough distally.
Leaves

basal sheaths fibrous;

sheath fronts membranous;

blades V-shaped in cross section when young, not more than 8 mm wide, usually pubescent, at least at junction of blade and sheath, sometimes very sparsely.
Inflorescences

racemose, spikes 2–6;

proximal nonbasal bracts filiform or leaflike, sheathless;

lateral spikes pistillate, with not more than 40(–50) perigynia, pedunculate, prophyllate;

terminal spike gynecandrous or staminate.
Perigynia

spreading, abaxial face veined, adaxial face veined or veinless, with 2, strong, marginal veins, sometimes stipitate, sometimes inflated, elliptic to broadly obovate, rounded-trigonous to round in cross section, 1.7–4 mm, base rounded or tapering, apex rounded or tapering, beakless or, rarely, beaked, glabrous or pubescent;

beak 0.2–0.5(–1) mm, orifice entire or subentire.
Achenes

trigonous, almost as large as bodies of perigynia;

style deciduous.
Proximal

pistillate scales with apex obtuse to acuminate or awned, glabrous, sometimes margins ciliate.
Stigmas

3.

Carex sect. Porocystis
Distribution
Central America; Temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere; and South America
Discussion

Species 10 (8 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Terminal spike staminate or, rarely, gynecandrous, then not more than 1/4 of flowers pistillate.
→ 2
1. Terminal spike gynecandrous, at least 1/3 of flowers pistillate.
→ 3
2. Perigynia 1–1.5 mm wide; beak absent; pistillate scales ovate, 2 times as long as wide.
C. pallescens
2. Perigynia 1.5–2.2 mm wide; beak 0.2–0.5(–1) mm; pistillate scales ovate-circular, not more than 1.5 times as long as wide.
C. torreyi
3. Perigynia densely pilose; widest lateral spikes 2–4 mm wide; ligules longer than wide.
→ 4
3. Perigynia usually glabrous or pubescent, sometimes sparsely pilose; widest lateral spikes (3.5–)4–11 mm wide; ligules usually not longer than wide.
→ 5
4. Terminal spike (5–)11–20 mm; anthers 0.7–1.3(–1.6) mm.
C. swanii
4. Terminal spike 20–35(–40) mm; anthers (1–)1.6–2(–2.8) mm.
C. virescens
5. Pistillate scales awned to 0.5–2 mm; perigynia papillose, pubescent.
C. bushii
5. Pistillate scales awnless or awned to 0.5(–1) mm; perigynia not papillose, glabrous or sparsely pilose.
→ 6
6. Mature perigynia nearly circular in cross section, spreading.
C. caroliniana
6. Mature perigynia ± trigonous in cross section, ascending.
→ 7
7. Leaf blades pilose on both surfaces.
C. hirsutella
7. Leaf blades glabrescent, at least abaxially, sometimes persistently pilose proximally.
C. complanata
Source FNA vol. 23. Author: Peter W. Ball.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Carex
Subordinate taxa
C. bushii, C. caroliniana, C. complanata, C. hirsutella, C. pallescens, C. swanii, C. torreyi, C. virescens
Synonyms C. section Virescentes
Name authority Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 147. (1827)
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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