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Published In: Species Plantarum. Editio quarta 4(1): 318–319. 1805. (Sp. Pl.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/1/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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3. Scleria pauciflora Muhl. (Carolina nut grass)

Pl. 86 a, b; Map 328

S. pauciflora var. caroliniana (Willd.) A.W. Wood

Plants perennial with knotty rhizomes. Aerial stems usually appearing clustered, 20–50 cm long, erect to ascending, glabrous or less commonly sparsely hairy, usually somewhat roughened along the angles. Leaf sheaths usually not winged but usually roughened along the angles, hairy, green and often somewhat tinged with purple, the convex tip opposite the leaf blade 1–2 mm long, broadly rounded, hairy. Leaf blades 1–25 cm long, 1–2 mm wide, hairy, especially along the margins and main veins, rarely nearly glabrous. Inflorescences few to several clusters of spikelets, these arranged in 1–3 headlike masses. Bracts erect to ascending, 0.8–9.0 cm long. Spikelets 4.0–6.5 mm long, the scales green to purplish brown. Fruits with the main body 1.3–2.0 mm long at maturity, broadly ovate to circular in outline, the tip usually with a minute point, the surface irregularly warty and sometimes also with short ridges, shiny, white or rarely grayish tinged, the basal disk irregularly 3-angled, with 6 distinct tubercles. May–September.

Scattered in the Ozark and Ozark Border Divisions (eastern U.S. west to Texas; Mexico, Central America, Caribbean Islands). Fens, mesic upland prairies, moist areas of glades, savannas, and openings of dry upland forests, often (but not always) on calcareous substrates.

In Missouri, this species is less commonly encountered than is the closely related S. ciliata. For further discussion of the separation of these two taxa, see the treatment of that species. As in S. ciliata, a number of poorly differentiated morphological races occur. Plants of S. pauciflora with denser pubescence of longer hairs have been called var. caroliniana, a variant that is unworthy of formal taxonomic recognition.

 


 

 
 
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