''Carex lemmonii'', or Lemmon's sedge, is a plant in the

sedge The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

family, and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. ''Carex albida'' (binomial authority L.H.Bailey) is now considered a synonym, but was previously thought to be a separate species; such plants have the common name white sedge.

Description

This sedge produces a dense or loose clump of erect stems 40 to 60 centimeters tall from a network of short

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is a cluster of 5 to 7 spikes over 15 centimeters long.

Staminate The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

flowers are located mainly on the terminal spike, while

pistillate Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

flowers are mainly located in the lateral spikes. The fruit is covered in a sac called a perigynium, which is green with a white beak.

White sedge

White sedge is

Sonoma County, California Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

, where it is known only from one occurrence at Pitkin Marsh, a

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

between Forestville and

Sebastopol Sevastopol (; uk, Севасто́поль, Sevastópolʹ, ; gkm, Σεβαστούπολις, Sevastoúpolis, ; crh, Акъя́р, Aqyár, ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea, and a major port on the Black Sea ...

. There are fewer than 1000 plants,The Nature Conservancy
/ref> and likely fewer than 300 according to more recent estimates.USFWS
White sedge/Pitkin marsh lily Five-year Review.
August 2009. It is a federally listed

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. The colonies are scattered across of a tract. As with other plants that

reproduce vegetatively Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or speci ...

cloning Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cl ...

from their

s, the number of true separate individual life forms is hard to estimate, so researchers count visible stems; a recent count revealed fewer than 300, a decrease from nearly 1000. This sedge occurs near a rare local endemic, the

Pitkin Marsh lily ''Lilium pardalinum'' subsp. ''pitkinense'', the Pitkin Marsh lily, is an endangered perennial herb of the family Liliaceae that is endemic to certain wetland areas in the northern California Coast Ranges of Sonoma County, California, United St ...

(''Lilium pardalinum'' ssp. ''pitkinense'').

References

External links

USDA Plants ProfileJepson Manual TreatmentUSDA Plants ProfileFlora of North AmericaPhoto gallery
lemmonii Endemic flora of California Plants described in 1884 {{Carex-stub