Carex buxbaumii

Carex buxbaumii Wahlenb.:
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)
Greenland (North America)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Greenland; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B, Nfld. and Labr., N.W.T., N.S., Ont., Que., Sask., Yukon; Alaska, Ark., Colo., Conn., Del., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., Mont., Nebr., N.H., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., S.Dak., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis., Wyo.; Eurasia.

Canada

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: Circumboreal; in North America, Newfoundland to Alaska, south to North Carolina (listed for Georgia by Russell and Duncan 1972, but currently ranked historically by Georgia Heritage Program), Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California.

Plants cespitose, long-rhizomatous. Culms 25–75 cm, distally scabrous. Leaves 2–3.5 mm wide. Inflorescences: proximal bracts shorter than, equaling, or exceeding inflorescences; spikes separate, erect, short-pendunculate, short-oblong or elongate, 10–25 × 6–10 mm; lateral 2–3(–4) spikes pistillate; terminal spike gynecandrous. Pistillate scales light to dark brown, lanceolate, shorter or much longer and narrower than perigynia, midvein lighter colored than body, conspicuous, often raised, prominent, apex acute or acuminate, mucronate, mucro 0.5–3 mm. Perigynia ascending, gray green or whitish, faintly veined, elliptic, 2.5–4 × 1.5–2 mm, apex beakless or abruptly beaked, densely papillose; beak to 0.2 mm. Achenes nearly filling body of perigynia. 2n = ca. 106.

Uppermost spike (at least usually) both pistillate and staminate (the similar C. limosa spike is entirely staminate); strongly bicolored pistillate scales; spikes sessile or with short pedicel; glaucous foliage. Within Section Atratae: pistillate spikes mostly sessile or nearly so (C. atratiformis has the pistillate spikes on slender peduncles 1-4 cm); stems of the season aphyllopodic, not surrounded by dried sheaths of previous years (although these may be present on old stems), perigynia densely and conspicuously papillate (C. norvegica and C. parryana have stems of the season phyllopodic or somewhat aphyllopodic, surrounded by the dried sheaths of previous years, perigynia not notable papillate) (Gleason and Cronquist 1991).

Carex buxbaumii var. anticostensis Raymond; C. polygama Schkuhr 1801, not J. F. Gmelin 1796; C. holmiana Mackenzie

Wet meadows, marshes, fens; 20–3000m.

Comments: Found in a variety of wet places; most commonly listed habitats are bogs and wet meadows. Others include fens, marshes, wet shores, swamps, "marly bogs and marshes", prairie swales, wet river bottom prairie, alluvial meadows, and springs. (Correll & Correll 1972, Fernald 1950, Gleason & Cronquist 1991, Hough 1983, Lakela 1965, Larson 1993, Radford et al. 1968, Steyermark 1963, Voss 1972). Seldom-listed habitats: rocky places along the Lake Superior shore (Lakela 1965, Voss 1972), swampy or wet woods (Naczi & Bryson 1990, Steyermark 1963), and aspen groves (Weber 1990). In Ohio: "moist situations in sun or semi-shade, usually in calcareous or neutral substrates; wet prairies, fens, swamp woods, pastures, meadows, ditches; rarely on rock exposures" (unpublished material in TNC files).

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

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 81 to >300

"In sun or semi-shade" (unpubl. TNC material from Ohio); also see habitat description.

Fruiting May–Sep.

Lower spikelets are pistillate, uppermost one is gynecandrous (Fernald 1950, Gleason and Cronquist 1991) or androgynecandrous (Radford et al. 1968) or staminate throughout (Fernald 1950). Spreads by long rhizomes. All Cyperaceae except Dichromena are wind-pollinated. The inflated perigynium allows Carex seeds to float for long periods of time (2 days to over 12 months, depending on the species), and various species are also dispersed by ants, birds, and mammals (Ridley 1930).

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 3
Specimens with Barcodes: 10
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N4 - Apparently Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Carex buxbaumii is widespread and circumboreal, occurring throughout Canada and south to California, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Georgia (?).

Comments: Land-use conversion, habitat fragmentation, and bog succession are low-level threats to this species (Southern Appalachian Species Viability Project 2002).