Carex pauciflora

Carex pauciflora grows to {{Convert|60|cm}} tall at most, although it more commonly grows to {{Convert|10-40|cm}} tall. It is a rhizomatous perennial with culms that grow alone or in diffuse clusters. A survey of populations in Estonia assessed a mean rhizome length of {{convert|4.1|cm|in}}, although rhizomes up to {{convert|35|cm|in}} long have been recorded.{{cite journal |last1=Kull |first1=Thea |last2=Kull |first2=Tiiu |date=2006 |title=Habitat loss and reproduction biology as related to decline in rare Carex species |journal=Ekológia (Bratislava) |trans-work=Ecology (Bratislava) |publisher=De Gruyter |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=280–288}} The blades may be up to {{convert|13|cm|in}} long and {{convert|1.6|mm|in}} wide, and no more than three blades occur on each culm. Every part of the plant is hairless.{{cite book |last1=Hitchcock |first1=Charles Leo |author-link1=Charles Leo Hitchcock |last2=Cronquist |first2=Arthur |author-link2=Arthur Cronquist |date=October 2018 |orig-date=1973 |title=Flora of the Pacific Northwest: An Illustrated Manual |publisher=University of Washington Press |edition=2nd |pages=722–727 |isbn=978-0-29-574288-5}}

Each flower only contains either male or female reproductive structures, although the plants themselves are monoecious. Each culm bears only one spike, with female flowers located below the male flowers on the spike.{{cite book |last=Cochrane |first=Theodore S. |date=2002 |title=Flora of North America North of Mexico |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=23 |page=560 |url=http://floranorthamerica.org/Carex_pauciflora |access-date=2023-07-07 |isbn=0-19-515207-7 |archive-date=7 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707162631/http://floranorthamerica.org/Carex_pauciflora |url-status=live}} Female flowers may be less well-developed in unfavorable habitats.{{cite journal |last=Sosnovska |first=S. V. |date=2015 |title=Stateva struktura populyatsiy Carex pauciflora i C. dioica (Cyperaceae) v Ukrayini |trans-title=Sexual structure of populations of Carex pauciflora and Carex dioica (Cyperaceae) in Ukraine |script-title=uk:Статеве структура популяцій Carex pauciflora і C. dioica (Cyperaceae) в Україні |language=uk |journal=Ukrayins'kyy Botanichnyy Zhurnal |trans-work=Ukrainian Botanical Journal |script-work=uk:Український Ботанічний Журнал |publisher=National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=229–236 |doi=10.15407/ukrbotj72.03.229 |doi-access=free}}

Carex pauciflora seeds are dispersed mechanically. The perigynium is launched outward when it comes into contact with an object and tissue at its base is compressed, which then acts as a spring when the pressure is released.{{cite journal |last=Hutton |first=E. E. |date=December 1976 |title=Dissemination of Perigynia in Carex pauciflora |journal=Castanea |publisher=Southern Appalachian Botanical Society |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=346–348 |eissn=1938-4386 |issn=0008-7475 |jstor=4032727}}

Carex pauciflora has a circumboreal distribution, occurring in cool temperate and subarctic areas throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It grows in bogs and other wet areas with acidic soil.{{cite web |last=Landsdown |first=R. V. |title=Few-flowered Sedge |date=2016 |publisher=IUCN Red List |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/19617721/19621161 |access-date=2023-07-07 |issn=2307-8235 |archive-date=27 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210927141804/https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/19617721/19621161 |url-status=live}} It is known to occur at elevations ranging from {{convert|75|-|1390|m|ft}} in the US state of Washington where it is classified as S2 (imperiled) by NatureServe,{{cite web |title=Carex pauciflora |date=2023-06-30 |publisher=NatureServe |url=https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.154231/Carex_pauciflora |access-date=2023-07-07 |archive-date=7 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230707161815/https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.154231/Carex_pauciflora |url-status=live}} although it is classified globally as a species of least concern by the IUCN Red List. Populations are known from every Canadian province or territory except Nunavut, although its presence was only discovered in the Northwest Territory in 2013, at a site near Fort Simpson.{{cite journal |last1=Garon-Labrecque |first1=Marie-Ève |last2=Léveillé-Bourret |first2=Étienne |last3=Higgins |first3=Kellina |last4=Sonnentag |first4=Oliver |date=October 2015 |title=Additions to the boreal flora of the Northwest Territories with a preliminary vascular flora of Scotty Creek |journal=The Canadian Field-Naturalist |publisher=Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club |via=PKP Publishing Services |volume=129 |issue=4 |pages=349–367 |doi=10.22621/cfn.v129i4.1757 |doi-access=free}} In Ukraine it is present in bogs and fens in the Carpathians{{cite journal |last=Cherepanyn |first=R. M. |date=March 2018 |title=Effect of climate changes on the habitat of rare arctic-alpine plant species in high mountain part of the Ukrainian Carpathians |url=http://publications.lnu.edu.ua/journals/index.php/biology/article/view/698/696 |access-date=2023-07-08 |journal=Biologichni Studii |trans-work=Biological Studies |script-work=uk:Біологічні Студії |language=uk |publisher=University of Lviv |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=73–86 |doi=10.30970/sbi.1201.544 |doi-access=free |archive-date=8 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708225217/http://publications.lnu.edu.ua/journals/index.php/biology/article/view/698/696 |url-status=live}} and in the Ovruch Raion of the Zhytomyr Oblast near the border with Belarus.{{cite journal |last1=Sosnovska |first1=Svitlana |last2=Danylyk |first2=Ivan |last3=Serednytska |first3=Svitlana |date=March 2013 |title=Distribution of the subgenus Psyllophora (Degl.) Peterm. (Carex L.) in Ukraine |journal=Biodiversity Research and Conservation |publisher=De Gruyter |volume=29 |pages=35–42 |doi=10.2478/biorc-2013-0009 |doi-access=free |eissn=2080-945X |issn=1897-2810}}

Recreational activity threatens some populations in North America.{{cite book |last1=Camp |first1=Pamela |last2=Gamon |first2=John G. |date=February 2011 |title=Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Washington |chapter=Carex pauciflora |chapter-url=https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/amp_nh_capa19.pdf |access-date=2023-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221022060515/https://www.dnr.wa.gov/publications/amp_nh_capa19.pdf |archive-date=22 October 2022 |url-status=live |publisher=University of Washington Press |isbn=978-0-29-599092-7}} The species has declined in Estonia due to development of its wetland habitats, although it has not been as severely impacted as some other sedge species. Populations in the Ukrainian Carpathians are threatened by climate change. The bogs that Carex pauciflora inhabits in the Ukrainian Carpathians are drying out and being invaded by shrubs, and fens that the sedge also inhabits are being invaded by trees and shrubs such as Pinus mugo, Alnus alnobetula, Salix silesiaca, and Picea abies. Manual removal of more competitive non-wetland plants has been suggested as a conservation measure.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{commons-inline|2=Carex pauciflora}}
• [http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242357389 Flora of North America]
• [https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:301464-1 Kew Gardens]

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pauciflora

Category:Plants described in 1777

Category:Flora of the Holarctic realm