| Monocotyledon | Literature for Carex alligata
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. Literature for Carex alligata Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. |
| Cyperaceae -- The Sedge Family | Bibliography |
| Carex alligata | |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | In the Hawaiian Islands, endemic to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Maui, Hawai`i. |
|
| Habit |
Moderately densely tufted perennials with short, woody rhizomes; culms trigonous, 60-150 cm tall, scabrous on angles below inflorescence. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves linear, nearly as long as the culm, 8-15 mm wide, slightly plicate, gradually tapering to a long-acuminate, scabrous apex; sheaths pale greenish to pale brown, 20 cm or more long, the hyaline ventral side split into parallel fibers; cataphylls dark brown to purplish brown, eventually disintegrating into brown fibers. |
|
| Flowers |
Spikes 5-9, closely spaced and subdigitate, the terminal spike staminate, brown to rusty brown, cylindrical, 5-17 cm long, ca. 3 mm wide, lateral spikes androgynous, with a short staminate distal part, occasionally the lower lateral spikes pistillate, cylindrical, 5-12 cm long, 4-5 mm wide, the lax peduncle short or upper spikes subsessile; bracts not sheathing, lower ones much surpassing the inflorescence, the lowest one up to 60 cm long; pistillate glume reddish to purplish brown, thin, membranous, elliptic to oblong-obovate, 3-4 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, acute, the 3-nerved green midnerve prolonged into a scabrous awn 0.5-0.8 mm long; perigynium dull, yellowish green, sometimes reddish purple or brown, tinged purple, thick, membranous to chartaceous, broadly obovoid to broadly ellipsoid, spreading, 2-2.5 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, glabrous, usually 1-2-nerved on dorsal side, and with 2 lateral ribs, abruptly contracted to the short-beaked apex, the orifice shallowly bidentate; stigmas 2. |
|
| Fruit |
Achenes obovate, lenticular. |
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