Cyperaceae taxon details
Carex herba-alpacae Jim.Mejías & A.Mor.Alons.
1793706 (urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:1793706)
accepted
Species
recent only
Morales-Alonso, A.; Muñoz-Schüler, P.; Pereira-Silva, L.; Donadío, S.; Martín-Bravo, S.; Jiménez-Mejías, P. (2024). A synopsis of <i>Carex</i> subgenus <i>Psyllophorae</i>, sect. <i>Junciformes</i> (Cyperaceae) in South America. <em>Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.</em> 207(4): 321–361., available online at https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae038
page(s): 26 [details] Available for editors
[request]
page(s): 26 [details] Available for editors
[request]
Description Plants very small, growing in clumps; fertile culms 2–4.1 cm × 0.55–0.9 mm, erect, smooth. Leaves 1.3–3.1...
Etymology From the Latin ‘herba’, herb or grass, and the animal alpaca (Vicugna pacos), a domestic camelid widely bred in Bolivia...
Description Plants very small, growing in clumps; fertile culms 2–4.1 cm × 0.55–0.9 mm, erect, smooth. Leaves 1.3–3.1 cm × 0.3–0.6 mm, basal, filiform, erect, shorter than the fertile culms. Inflorescence a single, terminal, androgynous spike, 3.25–4.83 × 3.14–5.2 mm, elliptic to ovoid, rarely some utricles with a rachilla protruding from the beak and developing into further branches that repeat the inflorescence configuration. Proximal-most glume bract-like, 4.9–7 × 0.3–0.5 mm. Staminate part inconspicuous; pistillate part 3–6 flowered, utricles ascending. Pistillate glumes 4 × 1.5 mm, elliptic, short mucronate, attenuated towards the apex, stramineous middle nerve, and dark brown to ferruginous margins. Utricles 4.2–5 × 1.3–1.5 mm, elliptic, trigonous, stramineous, darker towards the apex, and on the margins, glabrous; sessile, or with a stipe 0.1–0.2 mm long; beak 0.3–0.5 mm long. Nutlets 1.3–1.6 × 0.9–1 mm, obovate to elliptic, trigonous, castaneous, yellowish. Rachilla 1.1–1.7 × 0.2–0.55 mm, deltoid to broadly deltoid-oblong, pale brown to hyaline, with margins glabrous, mucronate. Stigmas 3. [details]
Etymology From the Latin ‘herba’, herb or grass, and the animal alpaca (Vicugna pacos), a domestic camelid widely bred in Bolivia...
Etymology From the Latin ‘herba’, herb or grass, and the animal alpaca (Vicugna pacos), a domestic camelid widely bred in Bolivia and Peru, because the plant grows in high-altitude bofedales where alpacas graze. [details]
Cyperaceae Working Group. (2025). [see How to cite]. Global Cyperaceae Database. Carex herba-alpacae Jim.Mejías & A.Mor.Alons.. Accessed at: https://www.cyperaceae.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1793706 on 2025-09-12
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Nomenclature
original description
Morales-Alonso, A.; Muñoz-Schüler, P.; Pereira-Silva, L.; Donadío, S.; Martín-Bravo, S.; Jiménez-Mejías, P. (2024). A synopsis of <i>Carex</i> subgenus <i>Psyllophorae</i>, sect. <i>Junciformes</i> (Cyperaceae) in South America. <em>Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.</em> 207(4): 321–361., available online at https://doi.org/10.1093/botlinnean/boae038
page(s): 26 [details] Available for editors [request]
page(s): 26 [details] Available for editors
[request]From editor or global species database
Description Plants very small, growing in clumps; fertile culms 2–4.1 cm × 0.55–0.9 mm, erect, smooth. Leaves 1.3–3.1 cm × 0.3–0.6 mm, basal, filiform, erect, shorter than the fertile culms. Inflorescence a single, terminal, androgynous spike, 3.25–4.83 × 3.14–5.2 mm, elliptic to ovoid, rarely some utricles with a rachilla protruding from the beak and developing into further branches that repeat the inflorescence configuration. Proximal-most glume bract-like, 4.9–7 × 0.3–0.5 mm. Staminate part inconspicuous; pistillate part 3–6 flowered, utricles ascending. Pistillate glumes 4 × 1.5 mm, elliptic, short mucronate, attenuated towards the apex, stramineous middle nerve, and dark brown to ferruginous margins. Utricles 4.2–5 × 1.3–1.5 mm, elliptic, trigonous, stramineous, darker towards the apex, and on the margins, glabrous; sessile, or with a stipe 0.1–0.2 mm long; beak 0.3–0.5 mm long. Nutlets 1.3–1.6 × 0.9–1 mm, obovate to elliptic, trigonous, castaneous, yellowish. Rachilla 1.1–1.7 × 0.2–0.55 mm, deltoid to broadly deltoid-oblong, pale brown to hyaline, with margins glabrous, mucronate. Stigmas 3. [details]Diagnosis A species similar to Carex vallis-pulchrae Phil., from which it differs by the utricles sessile or subsessile, instead having a stipe > 0.5 mm long, and the rachilla, as C. herba-alcapae exhibits a deltoid, sometimes deltoid-oblong, glabrous rachilla while C. vallis-pulchrae species present a linear, or linear to oblong, scabrid rachilla, sometimes even slightly serrulated (C. vallis-pulchrae subsp. vallis-pulchrae). [details]
Etymology From the Latin ‘herba’, herb or grass, and the animal alpaca (Vicugna pacos), a domestic camelid widely bred in Bolivia and Peru, because the plant grows in high-altitude bofedales where alpacas graze. [details]
