Carex aztecica Mack. in N.L.Britton & al. (eds.), N. Amer. Fl. 18: 229 (1935)

Jimenez-Mejias, Pedro, Morales-Alonso, Ana, Oleas, Nora H, Sanchez, Enmily, Martin-Bravo, Santiago, Masa-Iranzo, Irene & S. Meseguer, Andrea, 2023, New relevant chorological and conservation data on Carex (Cyperaceae) and Hypericum (Hypericaceae) from Ecuador, Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 99603-99603 : 99603

Carex aztecica Mack. in N.L.Britton & al. (eds.), N. Amer. Fl. 18: 229 (1935)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: QCA 36385 ; recordedBy: S. Lægaard; occurrenceID: QCA 36385 ; Taxon: scientificNameID: Carex aztecica Mack ; Location : country: Ecuador; locality: Cotopaxi. La Mana - Latacunga ; verbatimElevation: 1200 m; locationRemarks: Cotopaxi. La Mana - Latacunga km 26, 79°07'W 00°52'S, 1200 m, rocky roadbanks; georeferenceProtocol: label; Event : eventDate: 7 Apr 1993 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: QCNE 124910 ; recordedBy: S. Lægaard; occurrenceID: QCNE 124910; Taxon: scientificNameID: Carex aztecica Mack; Location: country: Ecuador; locality: Cotopaxi. La Mana - Latacunga ; verbatimElevation: 1201 m; locationRemarks: Cotopaxi. La Maná - Latacunga km 26, 79°07'W 00°52'S, 1200 m, rocky roadbanks; georeferenceProtocol: label; Event: eventDate: 7 Apr 1993

Taxon discussion

Carex aztecica was hitherto considered a Mesoamerican endemic species, known from southern Mexico and Guatemala. It belongs to the problematic Decora Clade (subg. Carex Carex ), where it was included as part of the variation of sect. Carex Indicae Tuckerman sensu lato, a set of species with lax paniculate inflorescences and utriculiform cladoprophylls. The Decora clade is one of the two groups of Carex that are exclusively distributed in tropical-subtropical areas, along with sect. Carex Fecundae Kük. (see below).

The records that we present here are the first for Ecuador, but also for South America. In addition, they constitute the new known southernmost limit of the species. The taxon can be distinguished from the closely related C. polystachya Wahlenb. by its darker female glumes (purple-brown to dark-brown in C. aztecica vs. orange, pale reddish-brown, stramineous or hyaline in C. polystachya ) with blunter apex (at least some glumes obtuse or acute vs. all glumes acuminate to awned) and the utricles with the beak reddish-tinged (vs. not tinged) ( Hermann (1974), Chater (1980). These localities in Ecuador become the new known southernmost limit of the species.