Carex maritima Gunn.
Fl. Norveg. II, 131. 1772.
Nomenclatural section used by Flora of North America project subgenus Vignea, sect. Foetidae (L.H. Bailey) Kükenthal
Carex incurva Lightf.
Carex incurva Light. var. inflata Simmons, Fl. Ellesm. 146. 1906.
Carex incurvaeformis Mackenzie
Carex psychroluta Krecz.
Carex maritima var. setina (Hrist) Fernald
Plants not caespitose (although sometimes loosely clustered). Plants less than 15 cm high (rarely etiolated and taller); (2–)5–10(–20) cm high. Roots pallid-brown. Ground level or underground stems horizontal; rhizomatous, or stoloniferous; elongate, or compact. Scales present (on horizontal stems). Aerial stems erect, or decumbent (usually); not filiform (0.6–4.0 mm in diameter including sheathing leaf bases); triangular in cross section; glabrous. Leaves mostly basal. Sheaths brown (pallid). Ligules present. Blades somewhat curled; linear; flat, or folded (sometimes loosely so); glabrous, or hairy (leaf tips scabrid).
Flowering stems shorter than the leaves, or about as high as the leaves, or conspicuously taller than the leaves. Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence absent. Inflorescence spicate, or head-like; globose or subglobose; 0.5–1.4 cm long; 4.5–9 mm wide; a single spike (in appearance), or multispicate (composed of tightly aggregated spikes); 2–5 spikes; lateral spikes sessile. Individual spike(s) erect. Terminal spike staminate at the apex. Cladoprophyll absent. Staminate flowers inconspicuous (3–5 flowers at top of each spike). Floral scales shorter than the perigynium in fruit (apex mucronate); brown; with margins, and sometimes mid-vein paler in colour than the adjacent area of the scale (margins translucent, the surface between brown); obtuse; lanceolate; 2.5–3 mm long; 1.6–2 mm wide; glabrous. Perianth absent. Anthers 1.2–1.5 mm long. Styles slender, not extending beyond the beak. Stigmas per style 2. Fruit surrounded by a perigynium. Perigynia with a slit running down the beak on the abaxial side through which the style protrudes; broadly ovate; 3–4.5 mm long; 1.5–2 mm wide; contracted at the base into a stipe-like structure; erect or ascending (but divergent at maturity); straw-coloured, or brown; surface dull; glabrous, or hairy (scabrous near the neck); appearing nerveless; inflated (somewhat); with 2 keels; apices beaked with a long beak (about 0.5 mm long); apex deeply bidentate (scabrous near the neck of the perigynia). Achenes not filling the upper part of the perigynia; lenticular.
Chromosome information. 2n = 60.
Distribution. Circumpolar. Coastal. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago wide-spread. Common. Arctic Islands: Baffin, Devon, Ellesmere, Axel Heiberg, and Parry Islands (Melville), Banks, Victoria, King William, Southampton, and Coats.
Ecology and habitat. Substrate around the margins of ponds, marshes, along streams (sometimes on mossy banks), river terraces (often near the mouth of a river in halophytic communities), tundra (marshy), sea shore (estuaries and lagoons, wet flats, sandy or gravelly beaches); imperfectly drained, or dry; calcareous, or halophytic; gravel, sand, silt (sometimes salt encrusted), clay. Commonly a littoral species of wet places, although it has been noted to grow up to 2000 feet or more (Porsild specimen label CAN 223325), often in calcareous well drained areas. Near the sea, it often forms dense mats in wet, flooded beaches.
Notes. Porsild (1957) suggested that inland specimens of C. langeana Fern. may be referable to this species. The later is distinguished from C. maritima by its ellipsoid-cylindric head, short anthers, and scabrous-tipped leaves. Specimens of C. maritima may have scaberulous leaf tips.
Polunin (1940) observed that this species varies so much, especially in vegetative characters that a number of varieties and forms have been erected and while he did not feel these were appropriate as there are all stages of gradation from one to another he recognized one "phase" as C. maritima f. inflata (Simmons) Polunin. He also felt that there was one variety, which even if it is a mere reduction phase is so striking different in its extreme depauperation and generally high-arctic habitat from the robust plant of the south that he separated is as C. maritima var. setina (Christ) Fernald. This has not been taken up here. Photographs in the image library illustrate the some of the range of variation we have recorded.
Illustrations. • Plants in habitat. Plants growing in sandy gravel. Nunavut, Baffin Island, Iqaluit. Susan Aiken 97–039, CAN. Scale bar in cm. • Plants in habitat. Sprawling plants less than 5 cm high, growing in saline meadow. Ellesmere Island, Franklin Pierce Bay 79°26'N, 75°38'W. S.G. Aiken 98–026, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plants. Compact plants with numerous head-like inflorecences. Plants growing in a saline meadow. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Franklin Pierce Bay 79°26'N, 75°38'W. S.G. Aiken 98–027, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plant. Note long rhizomes and peduncle without a cladoprophyll, characteristic of the Vignea. Drawing by Mrs S. Bergh and Mrs L. Barstad based collection, Svalvard: Dickkson Land: Dickson Bay, Kulmdalen, J. Lid, 12 Aug. 1924. O. With permission of the Botanical Museum Univeristy of Oslo, Norway. • Close-up of inflorescence. Head-like inflorescence of several compact spikes with staminate flowers at the top of each spike; two stigmas per perigynium. Plants growing in saline meadow. Nunavut, Ellesmere Island, Franklin Pierce Bay 79°26'N, 75°38'W. S.G. Aiken 98–027, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of inflorescence. Inflorescence with mature perigynia spreading away from the axis. Note the perigynia with two keels. CAN 485194. • Close-up of perigynia. Beaked perigynia with a distinct stipe, "stalk" below the perigynia. • 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).
