Rare Species Guide

  Synonyms

Carex katahdinensis

  Basis for Former Listing

Carex katahdinensis (katahdin sedge) was proposed as state endangered in 1984 because it was known by only a few herbarium specimens collected in the Border Lakes Region of northern St. Louis County; the most recent collection was dated 1954. The proposal was unsuccessful because it was not certain the species still survived in the state. Between 1984 and 1996, C. katahdinensis was rediscovered and threats to its survival assessed. We now know that it occurs primarily on sandy and gravelly lakeshores in or near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Despite the wilderness status of the area, recreational use of these lakeshores is high. It was determined reasonable and necessary to list the species as state threatened in 1996 because of the combination of its extreme rarity and potential threats from recreational use

  Basis for Delisting

Since its listing in 1996, subsequent research has indicated that C. katahdinensis may be a dwarf race of the more widespread prairie sedge C. conoidea (field sedge) (Ball and Reznicek 2002). It appears that C. katahdinensis has some level of genetic and ecological uniqueness, though it is no longer appropriate to consider it a separate species. Carex katahdinensis was delisted in 2013.

  Authors/Revisions

Welby R. Smith (MNDNR) 2018

(Note: all content ©MNDNR)

  References and Additional Information

Ball, P. W., and A. A. Reznicek. 2002. Carex. Pages 254-572 in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, editors. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Volume 23. Oxford University Press, New York, New York.

Lakela, O. 1954. Previously unreported plants from Minnesota with additional place records of rarities. Rhodora 56:39-41.

Ownbey, G. B., and T. Morley. 1991. Vascular plants of Minnesota: a checklist and atlas. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 320 pp.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. 2012. Statement of need and reasonableness. Division of Ecological and Water Resources, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Paul. 337 pp.