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Golden Sedge

Carex aurea Nutt.

Comments

provided by eFloras
The orange perigynia of Carex aurea are unique in North American Carex. The color does not develop until the perigynia are fully mature and ready to be shed, hence most herbarium specimens do not show that feature.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 23: 424, 425, 426 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
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Description

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Culms 5–40 cm. Leaves: blades 3–20(–30) cm × 1.4–3 mm. Inflorescences: proximal bracts with well-developed blades exceeding inflorescence sheaths 2–4(–10) mm; lateral spikes with 4–20 perigynia, approximate or proximal distant, lax, 4–20(–30) × 3–5 mm, middle internodes (0.5–)0.7–1.5 mm; terminal spike usually staminate, occasionally gynecandrous, sessile or short-pedunculate, 3–10(–15) × 0.9–2 mm. Pistillate scales brown with paler or green midvein, divergent in mature fruit, ovate to ovate-circular, 1.2–2.5 × 1.1–1.8 mm, apex subacute to obtuse or cuspidate. Proximal staminate scales brown with paler or green midvein and hyaline margins, oblong-ovate, 2–3.5(–4) mm, apex obtuse to subacute. Perigynia divergent, bright orange, somewhat inflated and fleshy when mature, circular-obovate, 2.3–3.2 × 1.2–1.8 mm, smooth or minutely papillose. Achenes subcircular, 1.4–1.8 × 1–1.5 mm. 2n = 52.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 23: 424, 425, 426 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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eFloras

Distribution

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Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.W.T., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Colo., Conn., Idaho, Ind., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., Nebr., Nev., N.H., N.Mex., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., R.I., S.Dak., Tex., Utah, Vt., Wash., Wis., Wyo.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
copyright
Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 23: 424, 425, 426 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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eFloras

Flowering/Fruiting

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Fruiting summer.
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 23: 424, 425, 426 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
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eFloras.org
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eFloras

Habitat

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Moist, open or shaded habitats, especially meadows and seepage slopes, usually on basic soils; 0–3000m.
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cc-by-nc-sa-3.0
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Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA
bibliographic citation
Flora of North America Vol. 23: 424, 425, 426 in eFloras.org, Missouri Botanical Garden. Accessed Nov 12, 2008.
source
Flora of North America @ eFloras.org
editor
Flora of North America Editorial Committee
project
eFloras.org
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eFloras

Comprehensive Description

provided by North American Flora
Carex aurea Nutt. Gen. 2: 205. 1818
Carex mulica R. Br.; Richards. Frankl. Jour. 751. 1823; ed. 2. 763. 1823. (Type from northwestern Canada.) Carex pvriformis Schw. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 1 : 69. 1824. (Type from Massachusetts.) Neskiza aurea Raf. Good Book 27. 1840. (Based on C. aurea Nutt.)
Carex aurea var. androgyna Olney, in S. Wats. Bot. King's Expl. 371, in smaller part. 1871. "Carex amcinna R. Br." Olney, in S. Wats. Bot. King's Expl. 372. 1871. Carex aurea f. colorala Farwell, Rep. Mich. Acad. 21: 361. 1920. (Type from Michigan.)
Loosely cespitose and long-stoloniferous, the stolons very slender, horizontal, yellowishbrown, the clumps medium-sized or smaU, the culms slender, erect, 0.5-5.5 dm. high, triangular, more or less roughened above, from very short to much exceeding the leaves, phyllopodic, light-brownish at base; leaves usually 4-7 to a fertile culm, more numerous on the sterile, inserted towards the base, the blades 3-25 cm. long, 2-4 mm. wide, light-green, stiflfish, flat above, channeled at base, attenuate, roughened towards the ape.x, the sheaths concave at mouth, the ligule about as wide as long; staminate spike erect, linear, sessile or shortpeduncled, 3-10 mm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, occasionally with a few perigynia, the scales oblong-obovate, obtusish or acutish, reddish-brown with greenish or straw-colored center and hyaline margins; pistillate spikes usually 3-5, erect, the upper approximate, short-exsertpeduncled or sessile, the lower widely separate, often nearly basal, on roughish peduncles at times 2-4 cm long; the spikes oblong to linear-oblong, 4—20 mm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, 4—20flowered, the perigynia ascending or in age spreading in few rows, alternate below or more overlapping above; bracts leaf -like, conspicuously sheathing at base, erect, the blades usually much exceeding the inflorescence, the sheaths concave at mouth, not biauriculate; cladoprophyllum prominent, perigynium-like; scales ovate or ovate-orbicular, widely spreading at maturity, shorter and narrower than the perigj'nia, short-cuspidate to obtusish, reddishbrown with conspicuous, green or yellowish-green, 3-nerved center and white-hyaline margins; perigynia orbicular-obovoid, flattened-oval in cross-section, not inflated, 2-3 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, coarsely ribbed, coriaceous, fleshy at maturity, translucent and golden-yellow or brownish, densely puncticulate, broadly short-stipitate, rounded at base, rounded at apex and beakless or nearly so, the orifice entire; achenes lenticular, with suborbicular face, 1.5 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, closely enveloped, scarcely substipitate, brownish, minutely densely puncticulate, abruptly very short-apiculate, jointed with the short, slender, blackish, scarcely exserted style; stigmas two, blackish, slender, rather short.
Type locality: "Hab. on the shores of Lake Michigan."
Distribution: Wet meadows and banks, in calcareous districts, Newfoundland to British Columbia, and southward to Connecticut, Michigan, Nebraska, and, in the mountains, to New Mexico and southern California. (Specimens examined from Newfoundland, Quebec. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts. Rhode Island, Connecticut. New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Manitoba, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Saskatchewan, Alberta. Montana, Wyoming, Colorado. New Mexico. Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho. British Columbia, including Vancouver Island.)
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bibliographic citation
Kenneth Kent Mackenzie. 1935. (POALES); CYPERACEAE; CARICEAE. North American flora. vol 18(4). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
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North American Flora

Carex aurea

provided by wikipedia EN

Carex aurea is a species of sedge known by the common name golden sedge.[1] It is native to much of North America, including most of Canada and the western, upper Midwest, and northeastern United States.[2] It grows in wet habitat, often on soils of a basic pH.

Carex aurea on stream bank

Description

Carex aurea produces stems up to about 40 cm (16 in) tall. The inflorescence produces staminate and pistillate flowers, the latter yielding rounded fruits. The fruit is coated in a sac called a perigynium which is fleshy and green at full size and then turns bright orange just before it falls off.

References

  1. ^ USDA Plants Profile
  2. ^ "Carex aurea". County-level distribution map from the North American Plant Atlas (NAPA). Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2014. Retrieved 16 April 2019.

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Carex aurea: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Carex aurea is a species of sedge known by the common name golden sedge. It is native to much of North America, including most of Canada and the western, upper Midwest, and northeastern United States. It grows in wet habitat, often on soils of a basic pH.

Carex aurea on stream bank
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