Carex fuliginosa Schkuhr
Beschr. Riedgr. 91. 1801.
Nomenclatural section used by Flora of North America project subgenus Carex, sect. Aulocystis Dumortier
Carex misandra f. flavida Fernald
Carex misandra R. Br. Suppl. App. Bartry's 1st Voyage.
Carex fuliginosa Schkuhr subsp. misandra (R. Br.) Nyman
Carex fluiginosa Schk. var. misandra ( R. Br.) O.F. Lang
Plants caespitose. Plants more than 15 cm high (usually); (5–)15–25(–40) cm high. Roots pallid-brown. Ground level or underground stems not developed horizontally or vertically. Scales absent. Aerial stems decumbent; filiform (somewhat flexuous); triangular in cross section; glabrous. Leaves mostly basal. Sheaths green (with broad, hyaline margins). Ligules present. Blades somewhat curled; linear; flat, or folded; glabrous (over most of the surface), or hairy (scaberulous on the margins, especially near the apex).
Flowering stems conspicuously taller than the leaves. Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence present (usually); conspicuous and leaf-like, or reduced, or scale-like; shorter than the apex of the inflorescence; 0.5–5 cm long; with sheath shorter than the blade. Inflorescence spicate; 4–9(–12) cm long; 10–40(–50) mm wide. Pedicels smooth (and capillary). Inflorescence multispicate; (2–)3–4(–5) spikes; lateral spikes borne on pedicels. Individual spike(s) erect (in drawf plants), or pendent. Terminal spike staminate at the base. Cladoprophyll present at the base of the peduncle of lateral spikes. Staminate flowers inconspicuous. Floral scales shorter than the perigynium in fruit (slightly); brown, or black (paler to hyaline at the apex); with margins, and sometimes mid-vein paler in colour than the adjacent area of the scale; ovate (to oblanceolate); falling early (occasionally), or not falling early; 3.5–4 mm long; 1–1.8 mm wide; glabrous. Perianth absent. Anthers 1.3–1.7 mm long. Styles slender, not extending beyond the beak. Stigmas per style 3. Fruit surrounded by a perigynium. Perigynia fused to the apex except for a small aperture through which the style protrudes; lanceolate; 4–5 mm long; 0.9–1.3 mm wide; sessile; erect or ascending; black (at apex), or straw-coloured (or greenish towards the base); surface dull; scabrous (along the margins); appearing nerveless; with 2 keels; apices beaked with a long beak; apex deeply bidentate. Achenes not filling the upper part of the perigynia; trigonous.
Chromosome information. 2n = 40.
Distribution. Circumpolar. Arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago wide-spread. Common. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, Parry Islands, Cornwallis, Banks, Victoria, Prince of Wales, King William, Southampton, and Coats (as well as Prince Charles).
Ecology and habitat. Substrate wet meadows (sometimes at the margins), hummocks, around the margins of ponds (and peat bogs), river terraces (typically older and dry), tundra, slopes (sometimes below snow banks), cliffs (rocky ledges and slopes), sea shore (wet swales and the slopes of beach ridges); imperfectly drained, or dry; calcareous; rock, gravel, sand, silt, clay, till (in combinations of the above); with high organic content, or peat (occasionally). Often found in dry, rocky or turfy areas on plains and slopes; common associates on dry tundra include Dryas, Cassiope, Saxifraga oppositifolia, and Carex rupestris. Also found, in damper places particularly of lower beach plains.
Notes. Polun (1940) considered this one of the most familiar and ubiquitous of all arctic sedges. It varies in height from 4–40 cm but the existence in the Far North of occasional quite large individuals suggests that the reduction elsewhere is merely the results of local exposure and other conditions.
Illustrations. • Close-up of plants. Plants growing on a dry sedge and grassy slope. Multispicate inflorescence with filiform pedicels, somewhat flexuous. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit, July 23, 1982, J.M. Gillett 19007. • Plants in habitat. Plants growing in dry calcareous gravel and silt tundra. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay. S.G. Aiken 98–004, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plants. Unusually short plants (about 10 cm high) with relativley short inflorescence pedicels. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay. S.G. Aiken 98–017, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. Scale bar in cm. • Plant in habitat. Plant growing beside brook in wet seepage slope of calcareous gravel. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay. S.G. Aiken 98–019, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. Scale bar in cm. • Close-up of plant. Roots much longer than the stems are high. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay. S.G. Aiken 98–004. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of inflorescence. Staminate flowers at the base of the terminal spik that is erect in this drawf plant. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Scoresby Bay. S.G. Aiken 98–004. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. Scale bar in cm. • Close-up of inflorescence. Multispicate inflorescence with filiform pedicels, somewhat flexuous. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit, July 23, 1982, J.M. Gillett 19007, CAN. • Arctic Island distribution.
Cite this publication as: Aiken, S.G., Boles, R.L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1999 onwards. ‘Cyperaceae of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.’ Version: 6th November 2000. http://http://www.mun.ca/biology/delta/arcticf/. Dallwitz (1980) and Dallwitz, Paine and Zurcher (1993, 1995, 2000) should also be cited (see References).
