Carex gynodynama Olney

Sporadic sterile hybrids between Carex gynodynama and C. mendocinensis are well documented. A reported hybrid with C. hendersonii needs further study to confirm parentage.

Plants densely cespitose. Culms reddish brown to dark maroon at base; flowering stems 20–70 cm, much longer than leaves at maturity, 1–1.7 mm thick, glabrous or sparsely pilose. Leaves: basal sheaths reddish brown, bladeless, pilose; others grading from dark red to green on back, tan-hyaline on front, reddish brown dotted and usually pubescent at apex; blades flat, 3–12 mm wide, usually pilose, more densely so abaxially, margins ciliate. Inflorescences: peduncles of lateral spikes, when present, less than 10 mm, often pubescent; proximal bracts usually shorter than inflorescence; sheaths 5–50 mm; blades 1.2–2 mm wide. Lateral spikes 2–5, 1 per node, usually crowded toward apex and overlapping staminate spike, erect, sessile or pedunculate, pistillate with 20–40 perigynia attached less than 1 mm apart, cylindric, 12–40 × 4–11 mm. Terminal spike staminate, rarely gynecandrous, sessile or very short-pedunculate, 8–30 × 2–5.5 mm. Pistillate scales reddish brown with narrow white-hyaline margins and green midrib, broadly ovate, shorter than mature perigynia, apex obtuse to short-cuspidate, often pubescent on midrib and awn, ciliate distally. Perigynia pale green, blotched with dark maroon at base, dark maroon-brown distally, 2-ribbed and finely veined with to 20 veins, most conspicuous near base, loosely enveloping achene, ellipsoid, 3.7–5.3 × 1–2.2 mm, membranous, base acute, apex narrowing to beak, body covered with long, appressed to spreading hairs; beak bidentate, 1 mm. Achenes substipitate, 2–2.6 × 1.2–1.7 mm. 2n = 50, 52.

Calif., Oreg.

Fruiting late spring–early summer.

Seeps, stream banks, roadside ditches, wet meadows and slopes, coastal prairies, mixed evergreen forest along the Pacific Coast; 0–600m.

Carex gynodynama Olney, Proc. Am. Acad. 7: 394. 1868
Carex Blankinshipii Fernald, Erythea 7: 121. 1899. (Type from Hydesville, Humboldt County, California.)
Densely cespitose and not stoloniferous, the culms 2-9 dm. high, slender, spreading, much exceeding the leaves, mostly lateral and phyllopodic, some central, bluntly triangular with concave sides, smooth on angles or nearly so, brownish or slightly purplish-tinged at base ; sterile shoots conspicuous, somewhat elongate; leaves with well-developed blades 6-12 to a fertile culm on the central culms or fewer on the lateral, the lower clustered, the upper somewhat scattered, the blades flat, flaccid, light-green, soft, sparsely soft-villous, 1-5 dm. long, 3-9 mm. wide, somewhat roughened towards apex, the sheaths long, tight, soft-hairy, yellowishbrown-tinged ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule as long as wide ; terminal spike staminate or often with a few perigynia, erect, overtopped or largely so by the uppermost pistillate spike, sessile or short-peduncled, 1-2 cm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, the scales obovate, more or less hairy, obtuse or mucronate, light-reddish-brown with lighter center and conspicuous whitehyaline margins; pistillate spikes 2-4, the 2 upper approximate, short-peduncled, the lower 1 or 2 widely separate, erect, on slender, usually long-exserted, sparingly hairy peduncles, the spikes oblong-cylindric, 1-3.5 cm. long, 6-9 mm. wide, containing 20-40 closely packed ascending perigynia in several rows; bracts strongly sheathing, leaflet-like, exceeded by inflorescence, the sheaths 0.5-4 cm. long; scales very broadly ovate or obovate, more or less soft-hairy above, the lower abruptly short-cuspidate, the upper often obtuse, chocolate-brown with 3-nerved green center and conspicuous white-hyaline margins, wider but shorter than perigynia; perigynia narrowly oblong-obovoid, 4.5-5.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, somewhat triangular and flattened, scarcely inflated, membranaceous, yellowish-brown and red-dotted, short-pilose toward apex, finely many-nerved, round-tapering at base and stipitate, rounded and abruptly beaked at apex, the beak conic, 0.5-1 mm. long, hyaline at mouth, shallowly bidentate; achenes obovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1.75 mm. wide, triangular with concave sides and thickened angles, yellowish-brown, granular, in lower three fourths of perigynia, rather closely enveloped, somewhat stipitate, slender, apiculate, jointed with the straight slender style; stigmas 3, slender, reddish-brown.
Type locality: "California, near Mendocino City" (Bolander 4700).
Distribution: Moist places in the Coast Ranges, from southern Oregon to San Mateo County, California. (Specimens examined showing the above range.)

Carex gynodynama adalah spesies tumbuhan seperti rumput yang tergolong ke dalam famili Cyperaceae. Spesies ini juga merupakan bagian dari ordo Poales. Spesies Carex gynodynama sendiri merupakan bagian dari genus Carex. Nama ilmiah dari spesies ini pertama kali diterbitkan oleh Olney.

Carex gynodynama là một loài thực vật có hoa trong họ Cói. Loài này được Olney mô tả khoa học đầu tiên năm 1868.