Carex obliquicarpa, a new species of the Cyperaceae from Guangxi, South China

Carex comprises ca. 2000 species, which makes it the largest genus in Cyperaceae and it is distributed in many regions of the world. Carex can be easily recognized from other genera of Cyperaceae by the absence of a perianth, and presence of unisexual flowers and utricles subtending nutlets (Nelmes 1951). Carex is divided into three subgenera, mainly based upon the number of stigmas, arrangement of spikes and whether the spikes are unisexual or bisexual (Zhang et al. 1998, Dai et al. 2000). Approximately 500 species have been recorded in China (Dai et al. 2000). Recently, several new taxa of Carex have been described (Jin et al. 2003, 2004). When collecting specimens in Guangxi, we found a population of a peculiar Carex at Mount Guposhan, Hezhou County. Further study on the utricles and nutlets suggested that this plant belonged to Carex sect. Confertiflorae, but there are clear differences between it and the other members of this section. Therefore, we treat this plant as a new species. Carex obliquicarpa X.F. Jin, C.Z. Zheng & B.Y. Ding, sp. nova (Fig. 1)