Luzula piperi |
Luzula |
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Piper's wood-rush, smooth woodrush |
hairy wood rush, wood rush |
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Habit | Herbs, perennial, usually cespitose, often with short, mostly vertical to running rhizomes and/or (less commonly) stolons. | |||||||||
Rhizomes | horizontal, short. |
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Culms | densely cespitose, 10–30(–35) cm. |
round. |
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Cataphylls | absent. |
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Leaves | basal blade green, 5–10 cm × 2–4 mm, firm, essentially glabrous; cauline leaves 2–3, 3–7 cm × 3–5 mm. |
sheaths closed, without auricles at throat (junction with blade), usually pilose; blade flat or channeled, never septate, margins with long, soft, multicellular hairs, apex often thickened (callous), veins commonly indistinct. |
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Inflorescences | branches spreading less than 90°, lax; proximal inflorescence bract leaflike, 0.8–1.5 cm; bracts and bracteoles brown, clear at apex, margins strongly ciliate. |
terminal; flowers inserted individually or in dense clusters (glomerules) variously arranged; bracts subtending inflorescence (proximal inflorescence bracts) 2, mostly leaflike; bracts subtending inflorescence branches 1–2, reduced; bracteoles subtending flowers 2–3. |
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Flowers | single or in clusters of 2–3; tepals dark brown, 1–2.5 mm, ± equal, apex acute, not reflexed; anthers ± equaling filament length; stigmas 5 times style length. |
tepals 6, in 2 whorls; stamens 6. |
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Capsules | dark brown, ellipsoid, shorter than 2.5 mm, longer than tepals; beak absent. |
1-locular, generally globose; beak often formed by persistent style base. |
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Seeds | light yellow-brown, lanceolate, narrowed at ends, 1.2 mm. |
3, globose to ovoid, base often with tuft of fibrous hairs (vestige of funiculus); nutritive appendage from outer seed coat (caruncle) often present, white, barely visible to ± equaling seed body. |
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x | = 6. |
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2n | = 24. |
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Luzula piperi |
Luzula |
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Phenology | Flowering and fruiting summer. | |||||||||
Habitat | Snowbeds and mesic heaths in subalpine and oceanic zones | |||||||||
Elevation | 400–2400 m (1300–7900 ft) | |||||||||
Distribution |
AK; ID; MT; OR; WA; AB; BC; YT; e Asia
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Temperate and arctic regions worldwide; tropical mountains |
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Discussion | The leaves of Luzula are primarily basal; cauline leaves are usually reduced. Luzula species have diffuse centromeres and small chromosomes. That has resulted in much confusion in interpretation and reporting of chromosome counts. No attempt has been made to include reported counts that could not reasonably be verified by the author. Excluded species: Luzula sudetica (Willdenow) de Candolle. Although reports of this European species appear frequently in the North American literature, I have seen no specimens that confirm its presence. No chromosome counts are published for North American material. Since this species has a distinct cytotype, 2n = 48 (H. Nordenskiöld 1956), it should not be difficult to verify on this basis. Species ca. 108 (23 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 22. | FNA vol. 22, p. 255. | ||||||||
Parent taxa | Juncaceae > Luzula > subg. Anthelaea | Juncaceae | ||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||
Synonyms | Juncoides piperi, L. wahlenbergii subsp. piperi | Juncoides | ||||||||
Name authority | (Coville) M. E. Jones: Bull. Biol. Ser. Bull. State Univ. Montana 15: 22. (1910) | de Candolle: in J. Lamarck and A. P. de Candolle, Fl. France, ed. 3 1: 198; 3: 158. (1805) | ||||||||
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