Volume 6 > Part 4 > Year 1998 > Page 467 > Cyperaceae > Carex

20. Carex phyllocaula Nelmeswfo-0000350022

Kew Bull. 1946: 21 & 25. 1946; Mém. Mus. Nat. Hist. Nat. (Paris), n.s. B, 4(2): 143. 1955; Raymond, Mém. Jard. Bot. Montréal 53, 73. 1959; Dansk Bot. Ark. 23: 259. 1965.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Rhizomatous perennial. Culms loosely tufted, 50–60 cm by 1–1.5 mm, triquetrous, smooth. Leaves basal and 1–2-cauline; blade linear, 30–45 cm by 3–5 mm, long acuminate, flattish; sheath 5–8 cm long, greenish to dark brownish, tightly clothing the culm; basal sheaths 5–8 cm long, yellowish brown to mid-brown. Lowest involucral bract leaf-like, up to 22 cm long. Inflorescence narrow, paniculate, 18–30 by 1.5–2 cm; nodes 3–4, close above, distant below, each subtending 1 partial inflorescence; partial inflorescences pedunculate, 5–15 cm long, branched, with 4–12 spikes. Spikes erect, ± cylindric, 1–2 cm long, androgynous, upper section male, lower female. Female glumes lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 3–3.5 mm long, acute, awned, sides membranous, yellowish brown, keel 3-nerved. Utricles suberect, fusiform, trigonous, 4.5–5(–6) by 0.8–1 mm, green, finely many-veined, hispid to spinulose-hispid except at base, gradually narrowed into beak; beak 1.7–2 mm long, apex 2-toothed. Stigmas 3. Nutlets narrowly elliptic, trigonous, 1.8–2 mm long, 0.7–0.8 mm.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Chiang Mai (Doi Chiang Dao).

Distribution : Endemic (Doi Chiang Dao – type: Kerr 6615 -BM K).

Ecology : In thickets and open grassy ground, 1,500–2,100 m alt.

Notes: Differs from Carex perakensis in having one branch at each node of the inflorescence, and fusiform utricles up to 1 mm wide which are densely hispid.