Carex lemmonii

Carex lemmonii, or Lemmon's sedge, is a plant in the sedge family, and is endemic to California. Carex albida (binomial authority L.H.Bailey) is now considered a synonym, but was previously thought to be a separate species; such plants have the common name white sedge.[1]

Carex lemmonii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Monocots
(unranked):
Commelinids
Order:
Poales
Family:
Cyperaceae
Genus:
Carex
Species:
C. lemmonii
Binomial name
Carex lemmonii
W.Boott
Synonyms
  • Carex albida L.H. Bailey
  • Carex abramsii Mack.
  • Carex luzulifolia f. albida (L.H. Bailey) Kük.
  • Carex sonomensis Stacey

Description

This sedge produces a dense or loose clump of erect stems 40 to 60 centimeters tall from a network of short rhizomes. The inflorescence is a cluster of 5 to 7 spikes over 15 centimeters long. Staminate flowers are located mainly on the terminal spike, while pistillate flowers are mainly located in the lateral spikes. The fruit is covered in a sac called a perigynium, which is green with a white beak.

White sedge

White sedge is endemic to Sonoma County, California, where it is known only from one occurrence at Pitkin Marsh, a wetland between Forestville and Sebastopol. There are fewer than 1000 plants,[2] and likely fewer than 300 according to more recent estimates.[3] It is a federally listed endangered species.

The colonies are scattered across 5 acres (20,000 m2) of a 27-acre (110,000 m2) tract.[2][3] As with other plants that reproduce vegetatively by cloning from their rhizomes, the number of true separate individual life forms is hard to estimate, so researchers count visible stems; a recent count revealed fewer than 300, a decrease from nearly 1000.[3] This sedge occurs near a rare local endemic, the Pitkin Marsh lily (Lilium pardalinum ssp. pitkinense).[3]

References
  1. Zika, Peter F.; Wilson, Barbara L. (October 2012). "Carex albida (Cyperaceae), and its Relationship to Carex lemmonii". Madroño. 59 (4): 171–180. doi:10.3120/0024-9637-59.4.171. S2CID 86232290. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  2. The Nature Conservancy
  3. USFWS. White sedge/Pitkin marsh lily Five-year Review. August 2009.


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