Georgia and Arkansas Carex sedges
This note was a comment on a specific observation from Georgia.
First, let me say I don't think this [observed specimen] is a hybrid!!! I'm only suggesting where to turn for an ID. It does look a little like C. tribuloides and C. ozarkana which is not known to cross the Mississippi River to the east of Arkansas. So, it looks a little like a hybrid between the two which is next to impossible! As for the Section Ovales (now Cyperoideae), it is one of the most difficult groups in a difficult group. That said, the trained eye can often identify Ovales species instantly. Why do I say that? I'll explain.
When I started seriously working on Arkansas Carex in 1991, I would estimate that a large percentage, perhaps 10% to 30% of the Carex specimens in a certain (and in many) herbaria were misidentified. There was good reason for this! If a person has an inadequate number of specimens of a species, is comparing a specimen to misidentified sheets, and to complicate matters, has several sheets of undescribed taxa, it is difficult to correctly identify a plant. From 1991 to 2011, the time I concentrated on Carex, the following taxa were described: C. ozarkana, new to science; C. molestiformis, new to science split from C. molesta; C. opaca elevated to species level. Arkansas Carex went from 88 recognized taxa (E. .B. Smith, 1988) to more than 130 today. I worked on about eight taxa in the state in the genus that are either new to science or split off from others.
I think the same conditions exist in Georgia today as were evident in Arkansas in 1991, too few specimens and too many undescribed species to get all the taxa identified easily. A need exists to study the carices of Georgia. But that would take me another lifetime and I only lived in Georgia from 2003 to early 2008. But science is a cooperative effort. I didn't name any Arkansas Carex species, although I did work on collecting and documenting specimens of several new-to-science taxa.
It is even possible that the spikelets shown here are different species! When collecting (or photographically documenting) Carex, I recommend including mature spikelets, plant habit (whole plant in a natural setting including habitat), and root characteristics. Some species are easily identified by rhizome and some varieties are most easily separated by root/rhizome characteristics.
