Favoritos de ppdsteward-cpoling

iNat doesn’t accept C. flavida. Many treatments consider C. flavida a form of C. dodgei. Keyed (using Haines Flora Novae Angliae) nicely to C. flavida. Hawthorns, once relatively common on MV many decades ago (according to old records),are now rare here, likely due to development as well as natural succession. This is the 4th C. flavida we have found on MV.

Keys out to C. flavida in Haines/GoBotany, but that option is not available in iNaturalist. Growing in a cluster of several mature individuals in a mesic shrub thicket at edge of a farm field. Vouchered as "Crataegus #2 Squam Farm" and will be deposited with NEBC Herbarium in December 2023. See other record "Crataegus #2 from Squam Swamp" collected the same week at a nearby site.

I finally came to the realization that a lot of the sedges I have been seeing here in Portage County that belong to the section laxiflorae are indeed Carex leptonervia. I had previously assigned these specimens to Carex blanda, but noticed that what I was calling C. blanda was quite variable, and some of that variability coorelated with habitat type and quality. In fact, I don’t think many keys do these species justice in there differences. C. leptonervia is a sedge of higher quality habitat. It is generally a little lengthier, thinner, and ‘greener,’ and the perigynia are different. But let me be clear, in spite of the name, the perigynia of C. leptonervia are not nerveless, but the nerves are less frequent around the perigynia than in other laxiflorae species. They also (the nerves) seem to be less dimorphic than in other laxiflorae species of which have prominent nerves roughly opposite from one another, and then have many more faint nerves running length wise between them, while in C. leptonervia, the less prominent nerves are just barely so. I also noticed that the carpellate scales are generally shorter in C. leptonervia than in C. blanda, but this may not be consistent as I have not seen this characteristic represented in any key.

Hope this description helps those who may be struggling with these species like I did.