Journal of Threatened Taxa
| www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2019 | 11(15): 15087–15088
Carex phacota, Spreng. (Cyperaceae): a new record for the central Western Ghats of
Karnataka, India
E.S.K. Udupa 1, H.U.
Abhijit 2 & K.G. Bhat 3
1,2 Department
of Botany, Sri J C B M College, Vidyaranyapura
Village, Sringeri Taluk, Chikkamagaluru District,
Karnataka 577139, India.
3 Taxonomy
Research Centre, Department of Botany, Poorna Prajna
College, Volakadu Road, Udupi, Karnataka 576101,
India.
1 eskudupa@gmail.com
(corresponding author),
2 abhitrogon@gmail.com, 3 kakunje_bhat@yahoo.co.in
doi: https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4482.11.15.15087-15088
Editor: B. Ravi Prasad Rao, Sri Krishnadevaraya University, Ananthapuramu,
India. Date of publication: 26 December
2019 (online & print)
Manuscript details: #4482 | Received 11 August 2018 | Final received 02
October 2019 | Finally accepted 01 December 2019
Citation: Udupa, E.S.K., H.U. Abhijit & K.G. Bhat (2019). Carex phacota, Spreng.
(Cyperaceae): a new record for the central Western
Ghats of Karnataka, India. Journal of
Threatened Taxa 11(15): 15087–15088. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.4482.11.15.15087-15088
Copyright: © Udupa et al.
2019. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by adequate credit to the author(s)
and the source of publication.
Funding: Kudremuk National Park, Karnataka
Forest Department.
Competing interests: The authors declare no competing
interests.
Acknowledgements: The authors are thankful to Dr. V. P. Prasad of Central National Herbarium, Botanical
survey of India, Howrah for help in the ID conformation. The gratitude extended
to DFO and Team, Karnataka Forest Department, Kudremukh
National Park for giving the entry to the national park. We also thank Prof.
Y.L. Krishnamurthy, Department of Applied Botany, Kuvempu
University for herbarium deposition in department Herbaria and also CBZ
students, Sri JCBM College Sringeri.
The genus Carex
L. of the family Cyperaceae is represented by
1,800–2,000 species. It has a
cosmopolitan distribution at high altitudes of the temperate and tropical
regions (Mabberley 2008). Hazra & Verma (1996) reported 62 species of Carex
from Sikkim and the Darjeeling Himalaya.
During a survey of grasses in Kudremuk
National Park, Karnataka (13.1690E & 75.2810N) a
species of Carex was collected and
confirmed as Carex phacota
by using the floristic literature. The
genus Carex is characterized by a perennial
rhizome, panicled spike, unisexual flowers rarely
dioceses, glumes numerous, persistent and imbricate around the rachilla (Images
2 & 3). Unisexual spikelets with one or two male florets at the tip and
remaining female florets in the inflorescence, shortly beaked utricles are the
key characters of Carex phacota
(Gamble, 1928). They usually grown
on wetlands, stream sides or lakes; hence they are commonly called lakeshore
sedge. It is distributed in southern and
eastern Asia, Bhutan, Nepal, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, northern Thailand, and Vietnam (Chowdary 2016). In India it was first reported by Gamble in
1928 at Nilgiri Hills, Tamil Nadu; later from Assam,
Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Meghalaya, Sikkim, West Bengal and now Karnataka also. The herbarium is deposited in Central
National Herbarium, Botanical survey of India, Howrah and also Herbaria,
Department of Applied Botany, Kuvempu University, Shankaraghatta, Shivamogga, Karnataka (Image 4).
Flowering and
Fruiting: November–March
Habitat and
Ecology: Wet soil of grasslands, ditches, banks of streams and roadsides
ditches at an altitude of up to 1,400m of shola (Image 1).
Specimens examined: KUABYLKS21,
21.i.2017, Gogudda, Kudremuk
National Park, Chikkamagalore District, Karnataka,
coll. H.U. Abhijit.
Carex phacota Spreng.,
F.B.I. vi.708. Syst. Veg. 3: 826.
1826; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 708. 1894; Gamble,
Fl. Pres. Madras 1686(1169). 1931; Manilal, Fl.
Silent Valley 338. 1988; Karthik. et al., Fl. lnd. Enum. Monocot. 40. 1989; Vajr.,
Fl. Palghat Dist. 542. 1990; Rejani, Cyperaceae. Kerala 101. 1991; C.D.K. Cook Aquat. Wetl. Pl. Ind. 99. 1995; Sasidh. et al., Bot. Stud. Med. Pl. Kerala 39. 1996; Sasidh., Fl. Shenduruny WLS 363.
1997; Swarup. et al., Shola For. Kerala 78. 1998; Sasidh.,
Fl. Periyar Tiger Reserve 484. 1998; Sasidh., Fl. Parambikulam WS 372.
2002; Mohanan & Sivad.,
Fl. Agasthyamala 772. 2002.
An erect, perennial herb with
tufted culms 50–60 cm long, leafy mainly at the base. Leaves are slightly yellowish-brown in color size about 40x0.5 cm.
Utricles not or very shortly beaked.
Female glumes 2mm long with hispid awn, oblong or ovate, apex deeply
emarginated, sides pale brown, midrib and awn green. Bracts long, upper filiform; spikelet’s
unisexual, one terminal male, rest female with some times a few male flowers at
the tip, linear- cylindric, 1–4.6 mm long, solitary, pedicelled, often
drooping: stigmas 2; utricles biconvex, ovate or trapezoid, acute, hardly
beaked, usually very shortly stipitate, brown with pale angles, faces covered
with white papillae which turn chocolate or purplish-brown on drying (Gamble
1928; Prasad 2002)
Flowering and
Fruiting: November-March
Habitat: Growing in swampy places
or streams of Shola.
Specimens examined: KUABYLKS21, Gogudda, Kudremuk National Park, Chikkamagalore District, Karnataka, coll. H.U. Abhijit.
References
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