X
Keyed in multiple places:

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Click images to enlarge and show more photo credit.

Key to Carex, Key A: Subkey in Carex

Cyperaceae

Carex

Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key

(c) Bradley, Keith
1 Leaf blades 20-60 mm wide, without a midrib (with 40-100 parallel nerves all of equal prominence), leathery, the apex obtuse; leaf margin scarious, minutely crisped-ruffled (feeling scaberulous to the touch)
1 Leaf blades 0.5-25 (-52) mm wide, with a midrib, herbaceous, the apex acute; leaf margin various (smooth or scabrous, but not as described below).
(c) Cressler, Alan M.
  2 Spike entirely staminate.
    3 Culms yellow to brown or black, without red or purple coloration.
(c) Ward, Scott G
(c) Loon, Chloe and Trevor Van - CC-BY
  2 Spike pistillate or with both pistillate and staminate flowers.
          6 Perigynia minutely but strongly and regularly serrulate on apical portion and beak, ± flattened; plants cespitose
(c) Ward, Scott G
               8 Spikes androgynous or entirely pistillate; beak of perigynium with apex entire, emarginate, or with teeth < 0.2 mm long.
                   10 Perigynium beak < 2 mm long, or if more, then tapering to the perigynium body and shorter than the body.
Click images to enlarge and show more photo credit.

Key to Carex, Key D: Subkey in Carex

Copy permalink to share | Check for keys that lead to this key

1 Pistillate spikes all or in part borne on the elongate, aboveground stem.
  2 Bracts of the lowermost non-basal spike with well-developed sheath > 4 mm long.
    3 Beak of perigynium entire, notched, or with indistinct teeth < 0.6 mm long.
      4 Bracts of the lowermost non-basal spike bladeless, or with a blade < 2 mm long.
      4 Bracts of the lowermost non-basal spike with blade > 3 mm long (and often much longer).
          6 Achene tip with at most a short apiculus.
             7 Leaves usually glabrous, to scabrous on the veins.
               8 Bases of plants distinctly red or purple.
(c) Ward, Scott G - CC-BY
  2 Bracts of the lowermost non-basal spike sheathless or with sheath < 4 mm long.
(c) Smith, Jake - CC-BY-NC, permission granted to NCBG
                          13 Terminal spike gynecandrous or pistillate
(c) Ward, Scott G
(c) Goldman, Douglas - CC-BY-SA
                          13 Terminal spike staminate (or rarely androgynous).
                                    18 Perigynia > 3.5 mm long, the tip tapering or abruptly beaked.
                                                      26 Leaf blades, at least toward the tip, M-shaped in cross-section when young, the upper surface usually with 2 marginal veins more prominent than the midvein; staminate spikes 1-4