Carex nardina Fr.
Nov. Fl. Suec. Mant. II, p.55. 1839.
Nomenclatural section used by Flora of North America project sect. Nardinae Kükenthal
Carex nardina var. atriceps Kükenthal
Carex nardina var. hepburnii (Boott) Kükenthal
Carex hepburnii Boott.
Plants caespitose (stems sometimes dead in the centre of the tussock). Plants less than 15 cm high (dwarfed in exposed habitats), or more than 15 cm high; (5–)10–30 cm high. Roots red-brown. Ground level or underground 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 mostly basal. Sheaths forming a conspicuous build up at the base of the plant (as hard compact tufts); greyish brown, or brown. Ligules present (slight). Blades straight; linear; involute, or caniculate; scabrous (or scaberulous, with rows of stiff trichomes).
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; 0.5–1.2 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 mid-vein paler in colour than the adjacent area of the scale; obtuse; 3–4 mm long; glabrous. Perianth absent. Anthers 1.5–2 mm long. Styles slender, not extending beyond the beak. Stigmas per style 2. 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); 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. Achenes not filling the upper part of the perigynia; lenticular.
Chromosome information. 2n = 66 and 70.
Distribution. Amphi-Atlantic (Porsild 1957). Arctic, or alpine. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago wide-spread. 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, Southampton, and Coats.
Ecology and habitat. Substrate lake shores (on raised sandy beach ridges), slopes (often dry and gravelly talus), cliffs (rocky outcrops, dry sandy shelves, or turfy ledges); dry; calcareous; rock, gravel, sand, silt, till; with low organic content. 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 cannot be reliably 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 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.
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. S.G. Aiken 98–020, CAN. Photograph by Mollie MacCormac. • Close-up of plants. Photograph of plant collected from in dry stony tundra, on hillside at Iqaluit, Baffin Island, Nunavut, 26 Aug. 1997, S.G. Aiken 97–040, 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).
