Page 27 - Black Range Naturalist Vol. 4 No. 1

In the bigleaf sedge the male and female flowers are arranged in long cylindrical spikes. Each individual flower is directly attached to a central axis in a Carex spike. However, each spike in bigleaf sedge contains either all female flowers (pistillate) or all male flowers (staminate). The distinguishing feature of bigleaf sedge is the long cylindrical pistillate spike with very plump green to brownish green perigynia with subspherical bodies that abruptly constrict to sometimes bent beaks (0.7-1.1 mm long) – see photo below. The narrow, brown staminate spikes are typically above and contrast sharply with the green pistillate spikes containing the plump perigynia (see photos on the previous page).
NMRPTC (New Mexico Rare Plant Technical Council). 1999. New Mexico Rare Plants. Albuquerque, NM: New Mexico Rare Plants Home Page. Search Carex amplifolia on NM Rare Plant List. https://nmrareplants.unm.edu (Latest update: 07 Nov 2020).
Rink, G. and M. LIcher. 2015. Vascular Plants of Arizona: Cyperaceae Sedge Family Part 1: Family Description, Key to the Genera, and Carex L. Canotia 11:1-97.
Dr. Richard Felger - Remembering
Richard Stephen Felger, ethnobotanist, worldwide desert researcher, poet, champion of sea turtles, and visionary proponent of dry-land food crops, passed away peacefully at his home in Silver City, with his wife by his side, on October 31, 2020. He was 86.
Born in Los Angeles, he became fascinated with beach drift and tide-pools in early childhood. A gift of cacti and succulents for his eighth birthday set his course as a botanist, and by high school he had found mentors who recognized his calling. A holiday field trip from L.A. through the Sonoran Desert into the tropical forest of Álamos, Sonora, Mexico, was the fulcrum on which his future life would turn.
Dr. Felger attended the University of Arizona because it was in the Sonoran Desert and near the Mexican state of Sonora, where he returned at every opportunity. By the time he finished his dissertation on the vegetation and flora of the islands and Gulf Coast of Sonora, he had formed a lasting connection with the
Note the beak on the perigynium on the right with
a broken stigma poking out the top. The position of the beak on the perigynium in the photo can be confused with a stipe on the bottom of the perigynium.
The culms of bigleaf sedge are robust – reaching 50-90 cm tall. The leaves are relatively broad for a sedge, measuring 7-15 mm wide. In N.M., bigleaf sedge is found along the edges of streams or in wet meadows on floodplains. Only a few robust wetland Carex might be confused with bigleaf sedge. Southern beaked sedge (Carex utriculata) is a common wetland sedge in N.M., but its perigynia are green to straw-colored or reddish-brown (i.e., not brownish-green) with often longer perigynia (3-5 mm compared to 2.4-3.6 mm in bigleaf sedge) and longer beaks (0.8-1.8 mm vs. 0.7-1.1 mm) that are never bent. The swamp sedge (Carex senta) is also robust and occurs along major streams, but its perigynia are somewhat flattened with short beaks (0.2-0.3 mm) and its leaves are narrow (1-6 mm wide). The Cochise sedge (Carex ultra) generally occurs at a lower elevation (1800-6500 feet) than Carex amplifolia (6100-8800 feet) and it is only known to occur in 2 N.M. sites, both in the N.M. bootheel (Hidalgo County). The Cochise sedge has pale green to reddish brown perigynia with red spots and shorter beaks (0.2-0.6 mm) than bigleaf sedge (0.7-1.1 mm).
REFERENCES
Licher, M.H., J. McGrath, W.R. Norris, & G.R. Rink. 2020. Carex, p. 69-96. in: Flora Neomexicana III: An illustrated Identification Manual. 2nd ed. Part 1. Introduction, Spore Plants, Gymnosperms, Monocotyledonous Plants, Glossary. Available from lulu.com.
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