Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Trichophorum pumilum (Vahl) Schinz & Thell.:
Afghanistan (Asia)
Kyrgyzstan (Asia)
Kazakhstan (Asia)
Mongolia (Asia)
Nepal (Asia)
Pakistan (Asia)
Russian Federation (Asia)
Tajikistan (Asia)
Uzbekistan (Asia)
China (Asia)
India (Asia)

Scirpus pumilus Vahl:
Russian Federation (Asia)
Switzerland (Europe)
China (Asia)

Global Range: Circumboreal, reaching southward to Alta., MT, WY, CO, and California (Kartesz 1999).

Distribution: Sporadically in Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, from S and SW Siberia south to Tadjikistan, along the Himalayas east to Nepal and W China; also in N. America [Scirpus pumilus Vahl subsp. rollandii (Fern.) Raym.].

Arctic and subarctic regions of N. hemisphere and high alpine regions of Asia.

Easily recognized as small stoloniferous perennial with short leaf blades; in first sight it resembles Eleocharis quinqueflora, but the nuts are different; E. acicularis is much more slender and in Eleocharis leaf blades are lacking.

Perennial, 4-25 cm, forming small tufts. Rhizome short, ascending, emitting tillers and short stolons. Stem c. 0.5 mm diam. or less, trigonous above, almost terete below, smooth, greyish green. Sheaths 10-40 mm, from yellow brown to dark brown, semi-glossy, mouth margin straight; ligule c. 0.2 mm, hardly arched; blades mostly less than 20 mm, c. 0.3 mm wide, more or less appressed against stem, thick, channelled, margins smooth or finely scabrous, apex obtuse, slightly turgid, smooth. Spike 3-4 mm, fusiform or, at fruiting stage, globose; lowest glume 2.3-4 mm, erect, to c. equalling spike and inflorescence appearing lateral, mid-nerve strong, apex often obtuse and slightly turgid as in basal leaves, sides nerveless, yellow brown or brown, margins scarious; second glume sterile; upper 3-4 glumes fertile, 1.5-2.7 mm, cymbiform, mid-nerve mostly not or barely reaching apex, sides yellow brown or brown, margins widely scarious, often shed before nuts. Anther 1.5-1.7 mm. Nut 1.5-1.8 x 1-1.3 mm, ellipsoid or obovoid, trigonous, plano-convex, with abruptly contracted base and conical apex, finely reticulate, glossy, dark or black brown.

North American plants have been distinguished as Trichophorum pumilum var. rollandii (Fernald) Beetle; differences from the Eurasian plants are elusive. The chromosome number in Europe is 2n = 78.

Plants loosely cespitose; rhizomes long, slender. Culms grooved, terete, 5–14 cm, smooth. Leaves: basal sheaths brown; distal leaf sheaths truncate to concave at mouth; blades 2–8.4 × 0.4–0.5 mm, much shorter than culms at flowering and fruiting. Inflorescences: spikelets 3–6-flowered, 3–4.6 × 1.7–2.8 mm; bracts shorter than spikelets, 1.6–2.5 mm, apex mucronate. Spikelets: scales brown, apex obtuse. Flowers: perianth bristles absent; anthers 0.8–1.5 mm. Achenes compressed trigonous to plano-convex, (1.2–)1.4–1.9 × 0.8–1.2 mm.

3500 m

After mid-summer, Pumilus looks like a tiny stick with a few little black eggs glued on top. It is most likely confused with species of Eleocharis, but in these species, the base of the style is enlarged, and the scales are persistent. S. CESPITOSUS is a larger plant that forms distinctive tussocks. A hand lens will be necessary for positive identification.

Scirpus pumilus Vahl, Enum. Pl. 2: 243. 1805. Eriophorella pumila (Vahl) Tan in P.H. Davis, Fl. Turk. 9:68. 1985. Baeothryon pumilum (Vahl) A. & D. Löve in Univ. Colo. Stud., Biol. 17: 14. 1965; Trichophorum atrichum Palla in Bot. Jahrb. 10: 296. 1888; Madalski, Fl. Polon. Terr. Adiac. Icon. 3,1: fig. 242a. 1979.

Scirpus pumilus Vahl, Enum. Pl. 2: 243. 1805; Baeothryon pumilum (Vahl) Á. Löve & D. Löve; S. alpinus Schleicher ex Gaudin; S. emergens (Norman) Fernald; S. pumilus subsp. rollandii (Fernald) Raymond; S. pumilus var. rollandii (Fernald) Beetle; S. rollandii Fernald; Trichophorum emergens Norman; T. pumilum var. rollandii (Fernald) Hultén

Comments: Calcareous ledges, gravels, shores, seepage areas, mires and bogs.

Moist alpine meadows, 2000-4000(-4900) m.

Fruiting summer (Jul–Aug). Moist to wet coniferous swamps, bogs, riverbanks; calciphile; 20–1500 m [3500 m, Nepal]; Alta., B.C., N.W.T., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Calif., Mont.; Europe; c Asia.

Fl. Per.: May - July.

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

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Occurs in widely scattered sites across most of Canada and in mountainous areas of the western United States (where it is probably a glacial relict). Most documented populations are in British Columbia, where it is considered to be rare, as it is in most or all of its remaining range. These plants are also treated as within the Eurasian Trichophorum pumilum (synonym Scirpus pusillus), or as a New World subspecies or variety of that species.

Comments: As treated here (following Kartesz, 1999), Trichophorum pumilum (=Scirpus pumilus) includes plants from Eurasia (see map in Hulten, Flora of Alaska, 1968) as well as those in North America previously treated as Scirpus rollandii (e.g., by Kartesz 1994). Kartesz (1999) treats the plants under the name Trichophorum pumilum, with 'rollandii' as a synonym.