2. Lipocarpha drummondii (Nees) G.C. Tucker
Pl. 78 f, g; Map 297
Hemicarpha
drummondii Nees
Hemicarpha micrantha
(Vahl) Britton var. drummondii (Nees) Friedl.
Scirpus micranthus
Vahl var. drummondii (Nees) Mohlenbr.
Spikelet scales
0.9–1.3 mm long, obovate to angular-elliptic, the tip short-tapered,
bluntly pointed, appressed, much shorter than the main body of the scale.
“Perianth” scales 0.5–0.8 mm long, about as long as the
fruits, lanceolate, not lobed, usually with 3–5 veins.
Uncommon and widely
scattered in the southern half of Missouri (eastern and southwestern U.S.).
Sandbars and sandy margins of streams, rivers, and ponds; also in moist
depressions of sand prairies.
Lipocarpha
drummondii, which was described based upon collections made in the St. Louis area by Drummond in 1832, was considered at most a variety of L. micrantha
by many earlier authors. Lawson (1973) studied the genus (as Hemicarpha)
in Oklahoma and clarified the morphological basis for separating this species
and L. aristulata from L. micrantha. Her findings were supported
by those of Goetghebeur and Van den Borre (1989), who placed the relatively
minor morphological characters separating these taxa into a global context,
concluding that many species in the genus can be recognized only on the basis
of such cryptic characters.