Atlas of the flora of New England: Cyperaceae: Introduction

ABSTRACT. Dot maps are provided to depict the distribution at the county level of the taxa of Cyperaceae growing outside of cultivation in the six New England states of the northeastern United States. Of the 368 taxa (species, subspecies, varieties, and hybrids, but not forms) treated, 363 are mapped based primarily on specimens in major herbaria of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, with most data derived from the holdings of the New England Botanical Club Herbarium (NEBC). Brief synonymy to account for names used in standard manuals and floras for the area, habitat and chromosome information, and common names are also provided.

Key words: flora, New England, atlas, distribution, Cyperaceae, sedges

This article (published in Rhodora, 109:237-360 (2007)) is the fourth in a series that will present the distributions of the vascular flora of New England in the form of dot distribution maps at the county level (Key Map). The atlas is posted on the internet at http://neatlas.org/ where it will be updated as new information becomes available.

This project encompasses all vascular plants (pteridophytes and spermatophytes) at the rank of species, subspecies, and variety growing independent of cultivation in the six New England states. Hybrids are also included, but forms and other ranks below the level of variety are not. The dots are based primarily on voucher specimens in the herbaria of New England representing reproducing populations, or plants persisting long after cultivation when it is uncertain that they are actually naturalized. This fourth installment includes the family Cyperaceae. Of the 368 taxa treated, 18 are not native to the region. Five taxa are not mapped, either because they were infraspecific taxa inadequately distinguished in herbaria from the typical species or because they were reported in the Flora North America treatment (Flora North America Editorial Committee 2002), but the location and locality of the voucher specimens are unknown. Future accounts will treat the distribution of the non-monocot angiosperms.

We plan to gather this series of articles, together with additional background material, into a separate volume upon completion of all the maps. It is our hope, in the meantime, that these articles will stimulate additional field work to supplement the distributions portrayed in the maps. The New England Botanical Club herbarium, which has proven to be the most important resource for this project, is especially eager to receive specimens documenting range extensions and filling county gaps in distributions. We also would like to be informed of such specimens in other herbaria. Similarly, because the atlas of the New England flora will be continuously updated as new information becomes available, we are eager to receive notification of published corrections of cytological information and new, documented chromosome counts for taxa in the New England flora.

Materials and methods are as outlined in Angelo and Boufford (1996) and are not repeated here.

The taxonomy and nomenclature adopted for this work essentially follow that of the Flora North America project in progress, except that families, genera, and species are arranged alphabetically. Named and unnamed hybrid taxa are placed alphabetically at the end of the genus in which they occur. Unnamed hybrids combine the names of the progenitors alphabetically by epithet. Taxa that are not native to New England are indicated by uppercase text. Unpublished names are not used, even if publication is pending.

Chromosome numbers are taken from Volume 23 (Cyperaceae) of the Flora of North America series (Flora North America Editorial Committee 2002).

Synonymy is provided primarily with respect to names accepted in standard manuals covering New England published from 1950 onward, including Fernald (1950), Gleason (1952), Gleason and Cronquist (1991), and Seymour (1982). Synonyms have not been provided where the distribution for the synonymized name does not include New England.

The following list will aid readers in finding familiar names that have been transferred to other taxa:

Hemicarpha => Lipocarpha

Psilocarya => Rhynchospora

Scirpus (in part) => Bolboschoenus

Scirpus (in part) => Schoenoplectus

Scirpus (in part) => Trichophorum

The following species are reported from our area, but no voucher specimens were located, or the substantiating specimens were misidentified, or the voucher specimen is in question:

Carex complanata Torrey & Hooker [identification of voucher specimen in question]

Carex crinita Lamarck var. porteri (Olney) Fernald [no specimen located]

Carex divulsa [no specimen located]

Carex meadii Dewey [reported in error from Rhode Island in Flora North America Editorial Committee (2002) (A. Reznicek, personal communication, 2006)]

Carex planispicata Naczi [C. amphibola Steudel var. rigida (L. H. Bailey) Fernald; no specimen located]

Carex salina Wahlenberg [misidentified C. vacillans Drejer or hybrids of C. paleacea Schreber ex Wahlenberg]

Carex tenera Dewey var. echinodes (Fernald) Wiegand [no specimen located]

Carex woodii Dewey [C. tetanica Schkuhr var. woodii (Dewey) Wood; misidentified C. tetanica Schkuhr var. tetanica]

Cyperus drummondii Torrey & Hooker [label of the voucher specimen is in question]

Fimbristylis puberula (Michaux) Vahl var. puberula [voucher specimen from Barnstable Co., Massachusetts annotated by Bruce A. Sorrie and Ray Angelo has not been confirmed in the field; the specific locality given on the collection label does not exist]

Kyllingia brevifolia Rottbøll [Cyperus brevifolius (Rottbøll) Endlicher ex Hasskarl; no specimen located]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank the curators and directors of the herbaria of Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts, the University of Vermont, and the University of Connecticut for allowing us access to their collections. For the University of Maine herbarium we used their exceptional online database of Maine specimens. Anthony Reznicek generously provided many valuable corrections, additional records and comments and reviewed some specimens whose identifications were in question. Gordon Tucker provided information on many vouchered records, primarily at Eastern Illinois University (EIU), for which we are very grateful. We thank Janet Sullivan for checking certain records at the University of New Hampshire herbarium. We particularly appreciate the kindness of David Barrington for allowing use of the collections of the University Vermont's Pringle Herbarium outside of normal hours of operation. We are grateful also to Karen Searcy for allowing access to the notebooks of Harry E. Ahles at the University of Massachusetts and for bringing to our attention some new voucher specimens there. James Hinds generously checked many records at the University of Maine herbarium. Ihsan Al-Shehbaz and James Solomon kindly and quickly provided last-minute information on some voucher specimens at the Missouri Botanical Garden. John C. McPeek checked information on some voucher specimens at the University of Maine herbarium, and Les Mehrhoff was helpful in reviewing information related to the holdings of the herbarium of the University of Connecticut.