Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Carex lemanniana Boott, Trans. Linn. Soc. 20: 121. 1846
'Carex pichinchensis H. B. K." Bock. Linnaea 39: 147, in part. 1875.
Carex Lemanniana var. simplex Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4-° : 405. 1909. (Type from Costa Rica.)
Cespitose and short-stoloniferous, the rootstocks stout, woody, the stolons ascending, the culms 2.5-6 dm. high, stiff, erect, sharply triangular with concave sides and more or less roughened above, exceeding or shorter than the leaves, phyllopodic, dull-brownish at base, the lower sheaths not breaking and becoming filamentose; leaves with well-developed blades 7-15 to a fertile culm, clustered, the blades glaucous-green, coriaceous, stiff, channeled above and keeled towards the base below, the margins revolute, usually 1-4 dm. long, 2.5-8 mm. wide, long-attenuate, roughened towards the apex, the sheaths thin, yellowish-brown-tinged and red-dotted ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule wider than long; inflorescence not or but sparingly compound, 1-2.5 dm. long, the spikes 4-20, simple or the lower more or less compound, weakly erect or drooping on nearly smooth, very slender peduncles usually shorter than the spikes; spikes androgynous, linear-cylindric, 2-8 cm. long, 3.5-5 mm. wide, containing 20-40 rather closely disposed (or more loosely towards base), ascending perigynia below in several rows, the upper one fourth to one sixth staminate; lower bracts leaf-like, rather shortsheathing, usually exceeding inflorescence, the upper much reduced; pistillate scales ovatelanceolate, short-rough-awned to cuspidate, purplish-black with lighter 1-3-nerved center and narrow hyaline upper margins and apex, wider and longer than the perigynia; staminate scales similar, duller; perigynia oblong-obovate, not inflated, plano-convex, sharp-edged, 2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, straight, membranaceous, puncticulate, straw-colored and strongly purplish-splashed, 2-ribbed (the marginal), obscurely striate ventrally, strongly severalnerved dorsally, hispid-serrulate above, rounded at base, slightly stipitate, abruptly beaked, the beak straight, 0.5 mm. long, shallowly bidentate, purplish-tinged above, the orifice hyaline, the teeth very short, stiffish, scabrous within, somewhat spreading; achenes lenticular, oblong-ovate, 1.75 mm. long, 0.85 mm. wide, closely enveloped, filling body of perigynium, brown, dull, not constricted in middle, sessile or nearly so, abruptly short-apiculate, jointed with the short slender style; stigmas 2, dull-brown, slender, short.
Type locality: "Hab. in locis humidis montis ignivomi Cotopaxi, Columbiae, Amer. Merid. Harlweg, no. 1446, Herb. C. M. Lemann; Columbia Dr. Jameson 220, Herb. Lemann."
Distribution : Costa Rica to Columbia and Ecuador. (Specimens examined from Costa Rica and Panama.)
- bibliographic citation
- Kenneth Kent Mackenzie. 1935. (POALES); CYPERACEAE; CARICEAE. North American flora. vol 18(6). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY