San Diego Sedge

Carex spissa has been divided into three taxa, distinguished in the extreme as C. spissa with glabrous, few-veined, strongly inflated perigynia; C. ultra with glabrous, veined, flattened perigynia; and C. seatoniana with hispid, veined, somewhat inflated perigynia and short-awned or acuminate scales. Intermediates between all three varieties are more frequent than the typical extremes (F. J. Hermann 1970). No consistent patterns of variation in perigynium or scale morphology can be determined or correlated with geographic distribution although considerable variation, particularly in perigynium morphology, is present. Further research based on analysis of variation at the population level may provide insights into relationships and differentiation within the problematic taxon. Carex spissa is distinguished from the related C. pringlei L. H. Bailey by the obovoid, rather than ovoid or elliptic, perigynia, and the abrupt, rather than tapering, beak as well as by habitat. Carex pringlei appears to be restricted to wet, saline soils and is not known from north of Mexico.

Culms obtusely angled, 110 cm × 5 mm, glabrous. Leaves: sheaths with red-brown spots, to 60 cm, backs green or red tinged, fronts membranous, apex concave to V-shaped; blades 120 cm × 7–18 mm, leathery, margins revolute, prominently keeled, antrorsely scabrous on margins and keel, glaucous when young, glossy adaxially, surface papillose abaxially. Inflorescences with 5–20 spikes, 25–80 cm; pistillate spikes 4–10, 3–13 cm × 10–12 mm. Scales red-brown with broad yellow-brown midrib, oblong, 3.5 × 1 mm, margins hyaline, apex acuminate or retuse, awn 0.5–3 mm, ciliate. Anthers 3–4 mm. Perigynia pale brown, with uniformly distributed red-brown spots, somewhat flattened to strongly inflated distally, 3.5–4.8 × 1.5–2.5 mm, base cuneate, apex obtuse, somewhat glaucous; beak red-brown, flared, abaxially obliquely bidentately cut, 0.5 mm. Achenes dark brown, stipitate, ellipsoid, 2 × 1.2 mm.

Fruiting Apr–Jun. Stream banks, wet seeps, sometimes on serpentine; lower than 600 m in Calif.; Ariz., Calif., N.Mex.; Mexico.

Carex spissa var. ultra (L. H. Bailey) Kükenthal; C. ultra L. H. Bailey

Carex spissa L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 70. 1886
"Carex hispida Willd." W. Boott, Bot. Gaz. 9: 89. 1884.
Loosely cespitose, from very stout elongate rootstocks, sending forth stout, scaly, horizontal stolons, the clumps large, the culms stiff, very tall and stout, 1-2 m. high, 2 cm. thick at base, 5-6 mm. above, phyllopodic, brownish-black at base, much exceeding the leaves, triangular with flat sides, very smooth on the obtusish angles; leaves with well-developed blades 5-10 to a fertile culm, clustered above the base, the blades not septate-nodulose, glaucous, coriaceous, usually 3-6 dm. long, 7-14 mm. wide, flat above with revolute margins, strongly keeled, and strongly serrulate on margins, roughened towards the attenuate apex, the sheaths deeply concave at mouth and somewhat dark-tinged, breaking and becoming conspicuously filamentose, the ligule longer than wide ; staminate spikes 3 or 4, approximate, sessile or the upper shortpeduncled, 4-10 cm. long, 5 mm. wide, the scales oblong-obovate, short-ciliate, obtuse or slightly cuspidate, reddish-brown or straw-colored, with lighter center and usually with conspicuous white-hyaline margins; anthers conspicuous, 4 mm. long; pistillate spikes 3-7, sometimes in twos, approximate or the lower one or two more or less separate, erect, sessile or very short-peduncled, or the lowest longer-peduncled, linear-cylindric, 6-14 cm. long, 7-10 mm. wide, staminate at apex, containing very many (150-300) at first ascending, at maturity squarrose-spreading perigynia in many rows; bracts leaf-like, the lowest but little sheathing, exceeding inflorescence; scales lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 3-nerved, tapering or somewhat abruptly contracted into a rough serrulate awn, noticeably exceeding but narrower than perigynia, straw-colored or brownish with wide green or lighter center and hyaline margins; perigynia broadly obovoid, membranaceous, becoming inflated, obscurely triangular, 3-4.5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. thick, straw-colored and somewhat glaucous, red-striate-dotted, smooth, obscurely few-nerved, round-tapering to the base, sessile, rounded and very abruptly shortbeaked at apex, the beak 0.5 mm. long, often bent, with emarginate somewhat dark-tinged orifice; achenes somewhat loosely enveloped, triangular, dark-colored, elliptic-obovoid, 2-2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, substipitate, continuous with the slender, not exserted, very abruptly bent style; stigmas 3, slender, rather short, reddish-brown.
Type locality: " California, San Diego Co., Pringle; San Juan Capistrano, J . C. Nevin; Arizona, Pringle; Lower California, Guadeloupe Canon, Orcutt."
Distribution: Banks of streams, at low altitudes, from Los Angeles County, California, southward into Lower California and eastward to southern Arizona. (Specimens examined from California; northern Mexico.)

Carex ultra L. H. Bailey, Proc. Am. Acad. 22: 83. 1886
"Carex hispida Willd." W. Boott, Bot. Gaz. 9: 89, in part. 1884.
Carex spissa var. ultra Kiikenth. in Engler, Pflanzenreich 4'-°: 422. 1909. (Based on C. ultra L. H. Bailey.)
Densely cespitose, from very stout rootstocks, sending forth stout, scaly, horizontal stolons, the culms stout, erect, 1.5 cm. thick at base, 4 mm. above, strongly phyllopodic, 5-15 dm. high, much exceeding the leaves, triangular with flat sides, smooth on the obtuse angles, serrulate-roughened in the inflorescence on the sharp angles above, brownish-tinged at base; leaves with well-developed blades 6-15 to a fertile culm, not septate-nodulose, the blades glaucous, thick, 2-6 dm. long, 6-12 mm. wide, channeled at base, flat above with more or less revolute margins, strongly striate-nerved, strongly rough-serrulate on the margins, the lower sheaths rough, scabrous, brownish-tinged and filamentose ventrally, concave at mouth, the ligule longer than wide ; staminate spikes 2-4, approximate or more or less strongly separate, 3-12 cm. long, 4-6 mm. wide, the lateral sessile or short-peduncled, the scales oblong-obovate, obtuse, smooth, reddish-brown with the center straw-colored ; pistillate spikes 3-6, sometimes staminate at apex, the upper overlapping, the lower more or less strongly separate, erect, the upper sessile, the lower more or less strongly peduncled, the spikes elongate, linear-cylindric, 2.5-15 cm. long, 6-12 mm. wide, containing very numerous, appressed-ascending perigynia in several to many rows; upper bracts leaflet-like, exceeded by inflorescence, the lower leaf -like, short-sheathing and sometimes exceeding inflorescence; scales lanceolate, acute or acuminate, or tapering into a short rough awn, reddish-brown with several-nerved green or straw-colored center, half as wide as and from slightly longer to slightly shorter than perigynia; perigynia broadly obovoid, 3.5-4.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, compressed-triangular, little inflated, subcoriaceous, glabrous, light-brown, red-striolate at maturity, obscurely several-nerved on both faces, rounded at base and at apex, abruptly short-beaked, the beak 0.3 mm. long, the apex emarginate, reddish-brown; achenes elliptic-obovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1.25 mm. wide, not filling perigynia, triangular with blunt angles, silvery-black, minutely pitted, substipitate, abruptly contracted into the slender, straight style which is continuous with the achene; stigmas 3, slender, reddish-brown, short.
Type locality: South Arizona (Lemmon 2901, 2902).
Distribution: Springy places, southern Arizona and New Mexico. (Specimens examined from Arizona, New Alexico.)