Carex section Helioglochin of Arkansas

(revised April 11, 2009)

(Taxonomy of species marked with an asterisk * matches the "Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Arkansas", a document of the Arkansas Flora Committee, version 9.0, January 18, 2003).

A single species represents this section in Arkansas. The Flora of North America identifies three other species in its range of coverage.

Carex decomposita Muhlenberg

Epiphytic Sedge and Cypress Knee Sedge are common names for this infrequent Arkansas species. Flora of North America notes "The cheifly southern Carex decomposita is in the Ozark (in sinkhole ponds) but not the Appalachian province. [It is] rare and local over much of its distributional range, . . . most frequent on the Mississippi Alluvial Plain" and occurs from New York and Missouri south to the coasts and west to Texas and Oklahoma. (Cochrane, in Flora of N. America, 2002). I've been unsuccessful in finding it in Arkansas, but several new reports exist for collections related to the Arkansas Flora Project. The species is easy to recognize with its distinctive branched inflorescences and buldging perigynia.

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