Northern Bog Sedge

Much has been written about variation in Carex nardina, but little has been resolved. Russian taxonomists have long maintained that C. nardina is a species restricted to Iceland, Svalbard, Noway, and Sweden and is distinct at the rank of species from C. hepburnii (T. V. Egorova 1999). The differences of perigynia, cited by Egorova and well illustrated in A. Cronquist (1969), can define two taxa, which have been viewed as minor variations (E. Hultén 1958) or good species. The Scandinavian material does appear to constitute a single taxon, C. nardina.

In North America both forms occur, but without the clear geographic limits offered by A. E. Porsild (1943). Carex nardina and C. hepburnii differ in the following characteristics: perigynia shape: ovate or spindle-shaped versus obovate or broadly elliptic; size: (3–)3.5–5 × 1.4–1.6 mm versus 3–5 × 1.5–2mm; beak formation and size: gradually formed, 0.5 mm, obscure to 0.4 mm; stipe formation and size: distinct, 0.5–1 mm verusus obscure (less than 0.2 mm); and range: Iceland, Svalbard, Norway, North America, Russian Far East versus Sweden and possibly North America. In time, perhaps, a clearer picture of the taxa in North America will emerge.

Carex nardina superficially resembles taxa in Carex sect. Filifoliae and can be confused with Kobresia myosuroides.

Pistillate scales brown, distal margins broadly hyaline, ovate, as wide and as long as or slightly shorter than perigynia, midvein slightly raised. Perigynia green becoming light brown at maturity, 3–5 × 1.4–2 mm, distal margins serrulate; beak tip brown or hyaline. 2n = 68, 70.

Greenland; Alta., B.C., Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., Nunavut, Ont., Que., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Idaho, Mont., Nev., Utah, Wash., Wyo.; Eurasia.

Fruiting Jul–Aug.

Exposed arctic and alpine tundra, usually calcareous, cliffs, rocky slopes, ridges, and summits; 50–3300m.

Carex elyniformis A. E. Porsild; C. hepburnii Boott; C. nardina var. atriceps Kükenthal; C. nardina subsp. hepburnii (Boott) Á. Löve, D. Löve & B. M. Kapoor; C. nardina var. hepburnii (Boott) Kükenthal; C. stantonensis M. E. Jones

Carex gynocrates Wormsk.; Drejer, Xat. Tidssk 3:434. 1841.
"Carex Bellardi All." Hornem. Fl. Dan. pi. 1529. 1816. "Carex dioica L." Schw. &. Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1: 293. 1825.
Kobresia nardina Hornem. Nomen Fl. Dan. 74. 1827. (As to reference to Fl. Dan. pi. 1529.) "Carex Redowskyana C. A. Meyer" Dewey, Am. Jour. Sci. 29: 250. 1836. (Plant from northwestern North America.) Carex alascana Bock. Bot. Jahrb. 7: 277. 1886. (Type from Alaska.) Cares I a tubstaminala Peck; Howe. Ann. Rep. N. V. Stale Mus. 48: 14S. 1897. (Type
from New York.) Carex monosperma Macoun; Howe. Ann. Rep. X. V. State Mus. 48: 148, as synonym. 1897. Carex dioica var. gynocrates Ostenf. Fl. Arct. 60. 1902. (Based on C. gynocrates Wonnsk.)
Freely long-stoloniferous, the stolons very slender, 1 mm. thick, yellowish-brown, the culms erect. 4-30 cm. high, very slender but stiff, obscurely obtusely triangular, smooth, arising singly or few together, noticeably exceeding the leaves, brown and clothed at base with the conspicuous dried-up leaves of the previous year; leaves of the year with well-developed blades usually 3-5 to a culm, clustered near the base, the blades erect or somewhat spreading, 2.5-10 dm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, narrowly involute, smooth, stiff, light-green, the sheaths very tight, not prolonged at mouth, the ligule very short; spike solitary, entirely pistillate, entirely staminate, or pistillate at base and staminate above, not densely flowered, linear. 5-15 mm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, bractless; scales of pistillate flowers oblong-ovate, shortcuspidate or acute or acuminate, light-reddish-brown or brownish in age, with narrow hyaline margin and poorly defined lighter-colored midvein, usually rather wider but shorter than perigynia; scales of staminate flowers similar, but more obtusish and lighter-colored; perigynia 4-10, erect-ascending or at maturity widely spreading or somewhat reflexed, at maturity biconvex, oblong-ovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, yellowish or at maturity brownishblack, shining, coriaceous, finely many-nerved dorsally, obscurely many-nerved ventrally, scarcely margined but minutely serrulate above, substipitate, round-tapering and spongy at base, abruptly contracted into a short beak about 0.5 mm. long, sparingly serrulate, obliquely cut dorsally, the orifice hyaline, the apex at length minutely bidentate; achenes lenticular, broadly obovate, yellowish-brown, shining, 1.5 mm. long, apiculate, tapering at base; style slender, jointed with achene, somewhat enlarged at base, not protruding; stigmas two, conspicuous, slender, light-reddish-brown.
Type locality: "Gninland Wormskj ' fflor J Vahl ! (fructif.)."
Distribution: Sphagnum swamps in calcareous districts. Greenland to Yukon, and southward to New York, Michigan, Colorado, and British Columbia; also in Siberia. Recorded, apparently erroneously, from northern Kurope. (Specimens examined from Greenland, Labrador. Newfoundland, Quebec. Nova Scotia. New Brunswick, Maine. New York. Pennsylvania, Ontario. Michigan, Wisconsin. Minnesota. Manitoba. Saskatchewan, Alberta. Keeuatin. Mackenzie, Montana. Wyoming, Colorado, British Columbia. Yukon.)

Carex nardina Fries, Mant. 2: 55. 1839
Carex nardina var. atriceps Kiikenth. Repert. Sp. Nov. 8; 7. 1910. (Type from west Greenland.)
Very densely cespitose, the culms erect or curving, 1-12 cm. high, slender, wiry, obtusely triangular, smooth, usually shorter than and hidden among the leaves, at base yellowish-brown and with the old sheaths of the previous year conspicuous, shining, sometimes sparingly filaraentose; leaves of the year with well-developed blades only 1 or 2 to a culm, the blades setaceous, very nartow (0.25 mm. wide) and stiff and wiry, resembling the culms, 1-10 cm. long, erect or somewhat curving, more or less roughened, the sheaths conspicuously striate dorsally, tapering into the blades, very thin ventrally and oblique at mouth, the ligule short; spikes solitary, androgynous, bractless, ovoid-orbicular, 4-10 mm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, closely flowered, the apical staminate flowers inconspicuous, the perigynia few to several, appressedascending; scales ovate-orbicular, dark-chestnut-brown, the lighter midvein usually inconspicuous, obtuse, slightly wider and slightly shorter than perigynia; perigynia planoconvex, oblong-obovate, membranaceous, brownish or straw-colored, 3-3.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 ram. wide, finely and obscurely several-striate on both sides, tapering at base into a short stipe, narrowly margined ventraUy to base, contracted into a short (0.5 mm. long), slender, darktipped beak membranaceous at mouth, cleft dorsally and at length bidentate, the margins sparingly ciliate-serrulate; achenes lenticular, in lower half of perigynium, loosely enveloped, brownish-black, obovate, 1.75-2 mm. long, 1-1.5 mm. wide, tapering at base, substipitate, apiculate; style slender, not enlarged at base, jointed with achene, deciduous, dark -colored; stigmas two, slender, elongate; rachilla green, setiform, a little shorter than the achene.
Type locality: "In Junkersdalen Lapponiae lulensis detexit J. Angstrom 1837."
Distribution: Dry sunny localities, in calcareous districts, alpine regions, Greenland to Hudson Bay and Alaska, and southward to the mountains of the Gasp6 Peninsula, Quebec, where very local; also in extreme northern Eurasia. Apparently avoiding acid soils. (Specimens examined from Greenland, Labrador, Ellesmereland, Robertsons Hay, McCormick Bay, Hudson Bay, Alaska, Gaso^ )