Carex nardina Fr.
Cyperaceae, sedge family.
Novit. Fl. Suec., Mant. 2: 55. 1839.
Nomenclatural section used by Flora of North America project sect. Nardinae Kükenthal
Type: Described from N Sweden.]
Carex nardina Fr. subsp. hepburnii (Boott) Á.Löve,
D.Löve & B.M.Kapoor, Arct. Alp. Res. 3, 2: 145. 1971.
Carex
hepburnii Boott in Hook. (1839), Fl. Bor.-Amer. 209. 1839.
Carex
nardina Fr. var. hepburnii (Boott) Kük. in Engl., Pflanzenr.
IV.20, 38 [Cyper. Caricoid.] : 70. 1909.
Carex nardina Fr. var.
atriceps Kük., Feddes Repert. 8: 7. 1910.
Carex nardina
auct., non Fr. 1839
Carex nardina var. atriceps Kükenthal
Carex
nardina var. hepburnii (Boott) Kükenthal
Carex
hepburnii Boott.
Vegetative morphology. Plants perennial herbs; (5–)10–30 cm high; caespitose (densely so, and sometimes dead in the centre of the tussock made up of persistent brown sheaths); densely tufted with persistent brown sheaths forming small hard and compact tufts, flowering heads with a single spike. Roots red-brown. Ground-level or under-ground stems not developed horizontally or vertically. Scales present. Aerial stems erect, or decumbent; filiform (0.3–0.5 mm in diameter); circular or oval in cross-section; glabrous. Leaves in a basal tuft. Petioles absent. Sheaths persisting; forming a conspicuous build up at the base of the plant (as hard compact tufts); greyish brown, or brown; collars absent. Ligules present (slight). Blades (50–)100–150(–200) mm long; 0.2–0.3 mm wide (filiform). Blades straight; linear; involute, or caniculate; veins parallel. Blades adaxial surface scabrous (or scaberulous, with rows of stiff trichomes). Blade margins scabrous (scaberulous).
Reproductive morphology. Plants monoecious. Flowering stems present. Flowering stems shorter than the leaves, or about as high as the leaves, or conspicuously taller than the leaves; without leaves in the upper half; glabrous. Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence absent. Inflorescence spicate, or head-like; globose or subglobose; 0.5–1.2 cm long; 3–6 mm wide; a single spike. Individual spike(s) erect. Terminal spike staminate at the apex. Cladoprophyll present at the base of the peduncle of lateral spikes. Staminate flowers inconspicuous (except at anthesis). Floral scales shorter than the perigynium in fruit; brown, or orange brown; with margins, and sometimes midvein paler in colour than the adjacent area of the scale; obtuse; 3–4 mm long; glabrous. Perianth absent. Flowers unisexual. Stamens 3. Anthers 1.5–2 mm long. Carpels syncarpous. Styles slender, not extending beyond the beak. Stigmas per style 2. Placentation basal. Fruit surrounded by a perigynium. Perigynia fused to the apex except for a small aperture through which the style protrudes; broadly ovate; 3.3–3.7 mm long; 1.4–1.7 mm wide; contracted at the base into a stipe-like structure; erect or ascending; whitish, or straw-coloured, or brown (towards the apex); membranous; surface dull; glabrous (but slightly scabrous at the apex); appearing nerveless; with 2 keels (scaberulous on the keels); apices beaked with a short beak; apex oblique, becoming slightly bidentate. Fruit an achene. Achenes not filling the upper part of the perigynia; lenticular.
Chromosome information. 2n = 66 and 70. Carex nardina
Fr. subsp. nardina
2n=68 70. - Löve and
Löve (1956b Iceland, 2n = 70); Engelskjøn and Knaben (1971
northern Norway, 2n = 68).
Carex nardina Fr. subsp.
hepburnii (Boott) Á.Löve, D.Löve and B.M.Kapoor
68 70. - Holmen (1952 Greenland, 2n = c.70); Jørgensen
et al. (1958 Greenland, 2n = 68); Hedberg (1967 northern Canada,
2n = 68); Johnson and Packer (1968 northwestern Alaska, 2n = 68);
Knaben (1968 Alaska, 2n = 68); Löve et al. (1971 western North
America, 2n = 68); Zhukova and Petrovsky (1972 north eastern Asia,
2n = 70); Löve and Löve (1981c central Canada, 2n = 68);
Zhukova (1982 north eastern Asia, 2n = 70).
Distribution. Northern hemisphere distribution: North American, or Far East; Greenland, Canada. Yukon, Northwest Territories Islands, Continental Northwest Territories, Nunavut Islands, Continental Nunavut, Northern Québec. Arctic, or alpine. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago widespread. Common. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, and Parry Islands (Melville), Banks (a collection at Sachs Harbour is a range extension since Porsild, 1957), Victoria, Somerset, Southampton, and Coats.
Ecology and habitat. Substrates: lake shores (on raised sandy beach ridges), slopes (often dry and gravely talus), cliffs (rocky outcrops, dry sandy shelves, or turfy ledges); dry; calcareous; rocks, gravel, sand, silt, till; with low organic content. Habitats: Can be found on the edges of Dryas mounds in dry habitats. Typical geologic features of the habitat are moraines and kames.
Taxon as an environmental indicator. Plant height in this species is indicative of the harshness of the environment in which plants grow.
Notes. In the vegetative only state this species may be difficult to
distinguished from Kobresia myosuroides.
Polunin (1940) discusses why
he considers specimens in the eastern Arctic to be var. hepburnii (Boott)
Kükenthal but recognition of the variety has not been widely taken up.
Polunin (1940) had observed the species growing in Arctic Bay, Baffin Island
dominating the slightly damp but by no means sheltered lower slopes around the
head of the bay and growing sometimes a full 20 cm high, and looking far more
luxuriant than any typical C. nardina.
Porsild (1957) indicated that
the species was represented in the eastern Canadian Arctic ‘by the eastern
race, var. atriceps Kükenthal and distinguished from var.
nardina by its taller growth and less curved culms and leaves’. This
is no longer considered to be a recognizable entity (P. Ball, University of
Toronto, personal communication 1997)
Both C. nardina and C.
hepburnii occur in North America. There is some evidence for the occurrence
of C. nardina subsp. hepburnii (Boott) A. and D. Löve and
Kapoor in parts of Canada, but also for C. nardina ss, but the problem
requires further study (D. Murray, personal communication June 2001, aftern
examining specimens together with Aiken in Stockholm).
Elven et al (2002)
considered the question is still open as to whether C. nardina s.str.
(excl. 'hepburnii') is a narrow North Atlantic entity (Iceland, Northern
Scandinavia) or whether it also occurs in North America and elsewhere in the
Arctic. If the narrow concept is followed, the plants in the CAAF area become
C. nardina subsp. hepburnii (Boott) Á.Löve,
D.Löve & B.M.Kapoor, Arct. Alp. Res. 3, 2: 145. 1971. They represent a
major geographical race (the most major one). The 'hepburnii' entity is
typified from Canada: Rocky Mountains, leg. Drummond, type in K.
Illustrations. • Plants in habitat. Tightly tufted plants growing on stony tundra, Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit, top of hill. S.G. Aiken 97–040, 26 Aug. 1997, CAN. • Close-up of plant. An isolated plant on a dry, calcareous tallus slope. Note the accumulation of dead sheaths at the base. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scorescby Bay. 79°53'N, 71°33'W. Aiken 98–020, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plants. Photograph of plant collected from in dry stony tundra, on hillside. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit 26 Aug. 1997, Aiken 97–040, CAN. • Arctic Island distribution.
Cite this publication as: ‘S.G. Aiken, M.J. Dallwitz, L.L. Consaul, C.L. McJannet, L.J. Gillespie, R.L. Boles, G.W. Argus, J.M. Gillett, P.J. Scott, R. Elven, M.C. LeBlanc, A.K. Brysting and H. Solstad. 1999 onwards. Flora of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval. Version: 29th April 2003. http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/’. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).
