Bermuda Sedge

Carex bermudiana Hemsl. Jour. Bot. 21: 260 pi. 2 j 9, f. 2. 1883.
Cespitose, from stout elongate rootstocks, the culms 3-10 dm. high, erect, rather slender, leafy, soon exceeding the leaves, strongly phyllopodic, obtusely triangular, smooth, purplishred-tinged at base, the basal sheaths breaking and becoming more or less filamentose; leaves (not bracts) usually 8-15 to a fertile culm, clustered toward the base, not septate-nodulose, strongly striate, the blades thick, flat above, channeled toward the base, 2.5-5 dm. long, 3-6 mm. wide, thick, coriaceous, light-green, roughened toward the apex, the sheaths purplishdotted ventrally, truncate at mouth, the ligule very short; terminal spike staminate, with 1-3 additional smaller staminate spikes at base, occasionally with a few perigynia at base, peduncled, linear, 2.5-5 cm. long, 3 mm. wide, many-flowered, the scales closely appressed, ovateoblong, red-dotted, hirsutulous, ciliate, short-rough-awned or cuspidate, straw-colored and light-reddish-brown-tinged, with hyaline margins and strongly 3-nerved lighter center; pistillate spikes 3-6, usually more or less staminate at apex, not in twos, sometimes more or less compound, erect or somewhat drooping, widely separate, the lower slender-peduncled, the peduncles roughish, the upper short-exsert-peduncled or nearly included, oblong-cylindric, 1.5-4.5 cm. long, 6-8 mm. wide, containing 20-50 closely arranged ascending perigynia in several to many rows; bracts leaf -like, the lower exceeding the inflorescence, reduced upwards, the sheaths long, the lower 2-10 cm. long, even the uppermost well-developed, purplish-dotted ventrally, deeply concave at mouth; scales lanceolate, strongly rough-awned, cuspidate or long-acuminate, greenish-straw-colored with hyaline margins, dotted and reddish-browntinged, the center green, strongly about 5-nerved, narrower than and about the length of the perigynia; perigynia oblanceolate, 4.5-5.5 mm. long, 1.5-2 mm. wide, strongly flattenedtriangular, not inflated, membranaceous, greenish-straw-colored, purple-dotted, puncticulate, strongly very many-ribbed, sessile, strongly tapering at base, rather abruptly contracted into a short, rough, deeply bidentate, slightly reddish-brown-tinged beak scarcely 1 mm. long, the teeth somewhat spreading, rough within; achenes narrowly oblong-obovoid, 2.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, triangular with concave sides, rather closely enveloped in lower two thirds of perigynium, yellowish, short-stipitate, slenderly apiculate, jointed with the straight slender style; stigmas 3, slender, reddish-brown, rather short.
Type locality: Bermudas (Dickinson).
Distribution: Marshes, Bermuda Islands; now known only in Paget Marsh. (Specimens examined from Paget Marsh, Bermuda.)

Carex bermudiana, the Bermuda sedge, is a sedge endemic to the islands of Bermuda. It is found on damp forest floors and in peatmarshes and has become extremely rare. The Bermuda sedge was listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in November 2014 with Endangered status. This species is listed on the Bermuda Protected Species Act.