Cyperaceae - Carex hostiana DC.

Description Rhizomes shortly creeping, with shoots hardly tufted; roots of varying colours and pale brown scales that soon decay, leaving robust fibres. Stems 15–60 cm, slightly rough and trigonous. Leaves 5–30 cm × 2–5 mm, ± flat or shallowly keeled, abruptly contracted into a parallel-sided, veinless tip several mm behind the apex, light green to yellow-green, grey-brown when dead, rarely overwintering; sheaths dark grey-brown, becoming fibrous, the inner ones pale, with a hyaline inner face and convex or lingulate apex; ligule 1 mm, rounded. The inflorescence is 1/4–1/2 the length of the stem, with leaf-like bracts longer than the spike but not exceeding the inflorescence, the upper one sometimes very short. Male spikes 1 or 2, 10–20 mm, with male glumes 3.5–4.5 mm, obovate-elliptic, brown with a broad hyaline margin and an obtuse apex. Female spikes 1–3, ± distant, 8–20 mm, ovoid-cylindric and erect; peduncles ensheathed for half their length; female glumes 2.5–3.5 mm, broadly ovate, dark brown with a conspicuous broad silvery (hyaline) margin and a pale, often green, midrib, apex acute. Utricles 4–5 mm, obovoid, ribbed, yellow-green, with a 1 mm beak ± deeply bifid and serrulate; stigmas 3, with the style often shortly exserted and persistent; nut obovoid, trigonous and shortly stalked. [details]

Description Cespitosa, en ocasiones laxamente, con rizoma de entrenudos ± largos. Tallos fértiles (15)50–90(60) cm, lisos o...

Description Cespitosa, en ocasiones laxamente, con rizoma de entrenudos ± largos. Tallos fértiles (15)50–90(60) cm, lisos o ligeramente escábridos, obtusamente trígonos. Hojas 2–5 mm de anchura, de menor longitud que los tallos, planas o ligeramente aquilladas, de color verde glauco o vivas, sobre todo por el envés, estrechadas bruscamente en una punta setácea; lígula generalmente hasta 1 mm, de ápice redondeado; ante-lígula hasta 4 mm, de ápice redondeado o truncado; vainas basales bastante fibrosas, de color pardo claro. Bráctea inferior folíacea, de mayor longitud que la espiga pero mucho menor que la inflorescencia. Espiga masculina solitaria, raramente 2, de 10–20 × 2–4 mm, fusiforme; espigas femeninas (1)2–3(4), de 8–20 × 4–6 mm, ovoides o cortamente cilíndricas, distantes, erectas. Glumas masculinas ovadas u obovadas, mucronadas o apiculadas, de color pardo; glumas femeninas anchamente ovadas, agudas o mucronadas, de color pardo-rojizo o pardo-púrpura oscuro, con margen escarioso ancho. Utrículos 3,5–5 × 1,5–2,5 mm, patentes, de contorno oval ± trígonos, plurinerbios, estrechados bruscamente o atenuados en un pico de 0,8–1,2 mm, bífido, escábrido. Aquenios 2–3 × 1–1,4 mm, de contorno obovado o elíptico, trígonos. 2n = 56. [details]

Description Plants not cespitose. Culms straight, 25–60 cm. Leaves of flowering stems shorter than stem, to 13.5 cm ×...

Description Plants not cespitose. Culms straight, 25–60 cm. Leaves of flowering stems shorter than stem, to 13.5 cm × 1.5–3.1(–4.3) mm. Inflorescences: peduncles of staminate spikes 5–70 mm; bracts 90 × 0.7–2.2 mm; inner band of sheaths with brown, convex projection to 3.2 mm. Spikes: proximal pistillate spikes 1–3(–4), distant, erect or ascending, usually conspicuously pedunculate, ovoid to short-cylindric, proximal 10–20 × 5–9.5 mm; terminal staminate spikes 10–33 × 1.6–4.2 mm. Scales: pistillate scales dark brown, 2.1–3.9 × 1.4–2.4 mm, margins conspicuously white-hyaline; staminate scales with broad, white, hyaline margins. Anthers 2–3.6 mm. Perigynia ascending, yellowish, 3.1–5.5 × 1.2–2.1 mm, apex gradually narrowed into straight, serrulate beak; beak 0.7–1.6 mm. Achenes 1.5–2 × 1–1.5 mm.
[details]

Taxonomic remark Source in seed data: wcs Update namepublishedIn from Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp. 88 1813 to Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp. : 88 (1813),...

Taxonomic remark Source in seed data: wcs Update namepublishedIn from Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp. 88 1813 to Cat. Pl. Horti Monsp. : 88 (1813), information provided by Alan E. on email Jun. 07 2021 More details could be found in [details]

Taxonomic citation

Cyperaceae Working Group. (2025). [see How to cite]. Global Cyperaceae Database. Carex hostiana DC.. Accessed at: https://cyperaceae.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1676428 on 2026-05-26

Taxonomic edit history

Date

action

2023-09-06 07:28:28Z

created

Jiménez-Mejías, Pedro

2024-12-10 11:47:54Z

unchecked

db_admin

2025-03-11 11:19:03Z

changed

Márquez-Corro, José Ignacio

Licensing

The webpage text is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

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Nomenclature

original description (1813). Catalogus plantarum Horti Botanici Monspeliensis. , available online at https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/viewer/10305/?offset=#page=1&viewer=picture&o=bookmark&n=0&q=
page(s): 88 [details]

basis of record Plants of the World Online (POWO). , available online at https://powo.science.kew.org/ [details]

Taxonomy

taxonomy source Jermy, A.C.; Simpson, D.A.; Foley, M.J.Y.; Porter, M.S. (2007). Sedges of the British Isles. 554 pp. Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland, United Kingdom. [details] Available for editors

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taxonomy source Luceño, M., Castroviejo, S., Jiménez-Mejías, P. (2008). Cyperaceae. In: Castroviejo, Luceño, M., Galán, A., Jiménez-Mejías, P., Cabezas, F., Medina, L. (eds). Flora iberica. Plantas vasculares de la Península Ibérica e Islas Baleares. Vol. XVIII. Madrid: CSIC., available online at https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/records/item/12958-flora-iberica-vol-18-cyperaceae-pontederiaceae?offset=, http://www.floraiberica.es/PHP/familias_lista_.php?familia=Cyperaceae [details]

taxonomy source Jiménez-Mejías, P.; Benítez-Benítez, C.; Fernández-Mazuecos, M.; Martín-Bravo, S. (2017). Cut from the same cloth: The convergent evolution of dwarf morphotypes of the Carex flava group (Cyperaceae) in Circum-Mediterranean mountains. <em>PLOS ONE.</em> 12(12): e0189769., available online at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189769 [details] Available for editors

[request]

Present

Inaccurate

Introduced: alien

Containing type locality

Syntype (of Carex hornschuchiana Hoppe) G 00191479, geounit Austria [details]

From editor or global species database

Translation Tufted, sometimes loosely so, with rhizomes having ± long internodes. Fertile stems (15)50–90(60) cm, smooth or slightly scabrid, obtusely trigonous. Leaves 2–5 mm wide, shorter than the stems, flat or slightly keeled, glaucous green or bright green, especially beneath, abruptly narrowed to a setaceous tip; ligule usually up to 1 mm, with a rounded apex; antiligule up to 4 mm, with a rounded or truncate apex; basal sheaths rather fibrous, light brown. Lower bract foliaceous, longer than the spike but much shorter than the inflorescence. Male spike solitary, rarely 2, 10–20 × 2–4 mm, fusiform; female spikes (1)2–3(4), 8–20 × 4–6 mm, ovoid or shortly cylindrical, distant, erect. Male glumes ovate or obovate, mucronate or apiculate, brown; female glumes broadly ovate, acute or mucronate, reddish-brown to dark purplish-brown, with a broad scarious margin. Utricles 3.5–5 × 1.5–2.5 mm, spreading, oval to ± trigonous in outline, many-nerved, abruptly narrowed or attenuate into a 0.8–1.2 mm beak, bifid, scabrid. Achenes 2–3 × 1–1.4 mm, obovate or elliptic in outline, trigonous. 2n = 56. [details]

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