Hedgehog sedge

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Hedgehog sedge
Hedgehog sedge (Carex echinata)

Hedgehog sedge ( Carex echinata )

Systematics
Monocots
Commelinids
Order : Sweet grass (Poales)
Family : Sourgrass family (Cyperaceae)
Genre : Sedges ( Carex )
Type : Hedgehog sedge
Scientific name
Carex echinata
Murray

The hedgehog sedge ( Carex echinata ), also known as the star sedge , is a species of the sedge ( Carex ) family within the sour grass family (Cyperaceae).

description

Illustration from Flora Batava , Volume 13

The hedgehog sedge is a perennial herbaceous plant that reaches heights of 5 to 90 centimeters. It forms dense or loose lawns . The upright or curved stem is bluntly triangular, completely smooth or rough under the inflorescence. The leaves are 1 to 2.5 millimeters wide and shorter than the stem.

The flowering period is between May and June. The inflorescence is 1.5 to 3 centimeters long and contains three to five separate spikelets that are up to 7 millimeters apart. The sitting spikelets are spherical or ovate with a diameter of 4 to 7 millimeters and have the male flowers at the base and five to eleven female flowers at the top. The spikelets look like small morning stars due to the sparsely protruding tubes, which are 3 to 4 millimeters long and thus longer than the husks and narrowed towards the top into a two-toothed beak. The husks are 2 millimeters long, brown, with a green keel and white skin edges. The female flowers have two stigmas.

The fruit is yellow-brown to brown.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 56 or 58.

Occurrence

The wide distribution area of Carex echinata ranges from Europe , the Azores , Morocco , the Caucasus to Eastern Siberia , China , Japan , Sumatra , New Guinea , Australia , New Zealand , North and Central America . The East Asian and North American populations are sometimes considered to be closely related species.

The hedgehog sedge inhabits wet, lime-poor, sandy-clayey swampy soil in flat moors , along ditches and in wet rush meadows . It is an association character species of the Caricion fuscae. It rises in the Alps to altitudes of 2460 meters. In the Allgäu Alps , it rises at Haldenwanger Eck in Vorarlberg to an altitude of 1850 meters.

Taxonomy and systematics

Carex echinata was first published in 1770 by Johan Andreas Murray . A synonym for Carex echinata Murray is Carex stellulata Good.

One can distinguish the following subspecies:

  • Carex echinata subsp. echinata : It occurs in the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere, in Sumatra, New Guinea, southeastern Australia and in New Zealand.
  • Carex echinata subsp. phyllomanica (W.Boott) Reznicek : It occurs from southern Alaska to northern California.

literature

  • Wolfram Schultze Motel: Cyperaceae. In: Wolfram Schultze-Motel (Hrsg.): Illustrierte Flora von Mitteleuropa. Pteridophyta, Spermatophyta . Founded by Gustav Hegi. 3rd, completely revised edition. Volume II. Part 1: Angiospermae: Monocotyledones 2 (Cyperaceae - Juncaceae) . Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1980, ISBN 3-489-54020-4 , pp. 150–151 (published 1967–1980).
  • Arthur Oliver Chater : Carex. In: TG Tutin, VH Heywood, NA Burges, DM Moore, DH Valentine, SM Walters, DA Webb (eds.): Flora Europaea . Volume 5: Alismataceae to Orchidaceae (Monocotyledones) . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1980, ISBN 0-521-20108-X , pp. 301 (English, limited preview in Google Book Search).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Erich Oberdorfer : Plant-sociological excursion flora for Germany and neighboring areas . With the collaboration of Angelika Schwabe and Theo Müller. 8th, heavily revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart (Hohenheim) 2001, ISBN 3-8001-3131-5 , pp. 176 .
  2. Erhard Dörr, Wolfgang Lippert : Flora of the Allgäu and its surroundings. Volume 1, IHW, Eching 2001, ISBN 3-930167-50-6 , p. 253.
  3. a b c Rafaël Govaerts (Ed.): Carex echinata. In: World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP) - The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . Retrieved October 14, 2016.

Web links

Commons : Hedgehog-Sedge ( Carex echinata )  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files