Carex collinsii Nutt.:
United States (North America)

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Global Range: Carex collinsii is mainly known from the coastal plain of the eastern United States but there are a few scattered inland populations as well. It occurs from Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York south to Georgia (Mackenzie 1931-1935, Standley 2002).

Nuttall did not designate a type specimen for Carex collinsii; he clearly did not intend that name to provide a legitimate name for the later homonym C. subulata Michaux, but listed both of the names. As K. K. Mackenzie (1931–1935, parts 2–3, pp. 704–705) pointed out, the locality of the type specimen for C. subulata Michaux is apparently erroneous because that species does not occur in Canada. The specimen in the Michaux herbarium (P, photo!) is C. collinsii.

Culms trigonous with obtuse angles, 15–75 cm, to 3 mm diam. at base, glabrous. Leaves: sheaths to 2.5 cm; blades 30–35 cm × 5 mm. Inflorescences 10–30 cm; peduncles of proximal spikes to 4 cm; bracts 8–15 cm × 3–5 mm, shorter than inflorescences; lateral spikes 4–5, 6–10-flowered, 1 × 2.5 cm. Scales white or translucent with green midvein, ovate, body to 2.5 mm, less than 0.5 length of perigynia, herbaceous, apex acute, acuminate or mucronate, awn to 0.5 mm. Perigynia green with red-brown spots, 15–20 raised veins, to 15 × 1.2 mm; beak obliquely cut, herbaceous, teeth cartilaginous, to 1 mm; style curved, short stigmas protruding from perigynium at base of oblique orifice. Achenes yellow-brown, oblong, obtusely angled, 3 × 1 mm, tightly enclosed by perigynia, dull.

Carex michauxii Dewey 1826, not Schweinitz 1824; C. subulata Michaux 1803, not J. F. Gmelin 1791

Fruiting Jul–Aug. Shaded sphagnum bogs or seeps, characteristically under Chamaecyparis thyoides or Picea mariana; 0–700 m; Conn., Del., Ga., Md., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., S.C., Va.

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: > 300

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 3
Species: 5
Species With Barcodes: 1

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G4 - Apparently Secure

Environmental Specificity: Moderate. Generalist or community with some key requirements scarce.