Carex williamsii Britt.
Bull. N.Y. Bot. Gard. 2: 159. 1901.
Nomenclatural section used by Flora of North America project subgenus Carex, sect. Hymenochlaenae
Carex novograblenovii Kom.
Plants caespitose. Plants less than 15 cm high; 5–15 cm high. Ground level or underground stems not developed horizontally or vertically. Scales absent. Aerial stems decumbent (slightly); filiform (0.3–0.5 mm in diameter); circular or oval in cross section; glabrous. Leaves distributed along the stems. Sheaths greyish brown. Ligules present. Blades 0.4–0.7 mm wide (filiform); straight; linear; triangular in cross section, or caniculate; glabrous (or scaberulous on the margins).
Flowering stems conspicuously taller than the leaves. Leaf or reduced bract closely associated with the base of the inflorescence present; reduced, or scale-like; shorter than the apex of the inflorescence; 0.5–1.5 cm long; with sheath shorter than the blade. Inflorescence spicate; 1–1.5 cm long; 2–4 mm wide. Pedicels smooth. Inflorescence multispicate; 2–5 spikes (few flowered); lateral spikes borne on pedicels. Individual spike(s) ascending (and widely spaced on a zigzag rachis). 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; orange brown, or green (on midvein); with margins, and sometimes mid-vein paler in colour than the adjacent area of the scale; cuspidate; ovate; falling early; 1–2.5 mm long; 1–1.4 mm wide; glabrous. Perianth absent. Anthers 1–1.2 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, or elliptic; 2.5–3.2 mm long; 0.9–1.2 mm wide; contracted at the base into a stipe-like structure (that is short); spreading at maturity; golden brown; surface dull (or slightly glossy); glabrous; strongly nerved; with 3 keels; apices beaked with a long beak (the tapering apex of the perigynia); apex not bidentate. Achenes not filling the upper part of the perigynia; trigonous.
Chromosome information. 2n = 18.
Distribution. Circumboreal (almost, Alaska to Labrador and Eastern Europe, Siberia and the Far East). Low arctic. Range in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago limited. Rare. Arctic Islands: Baffin (Iqaluit and Ogac Lake), Southampton (literature record).
Ecology and habitat. Substrate wet meadows, hummocks, sea shore; imperfectly drained (in one site, described as "dripping wet"); halophytic; sand, moss. Found in grassy wet meadows with Eriophorum angustifolium and Carex membranacea.
Notes. Polunin (1940) recorded this species as very occasional in rather dry grassy areas within its limited range, and also observed that it is "never noted as common even locally, or of any importance whatsoever; nevertheless a charming little sedge".
Mentioned in Porsild (1957) as similar to C. capillaris and occurring from Alaska to Labrador. Porsild and Cody (1980) mapped records from Southern Baffin Island. Four collections from Baffin Island, Iqaluit have been made since Porsild (1957). It occurs in the tundra of Hudson Bay coast and in the field may be mistaken for C. capillaris, and it is often overlooked because of this.
Illustrations. • Herbarium specimen. Relatively large plants for this delicate species, approaching 15 cm high, collected at Nunavut, Baffin Island, Ogac Lake. CAN 302045. • Close-up of inflorescence. Few-flowered spikes. Terminal spike was staminate at the base. Perigynia sub-laceolate or elliptic tapering into a long beak. CAN 549934. • 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).
