Rare Species Guide

  Synonyms

Carex bayardii

  Basis for Former Listing

Carex crus-corvi (raven's foot sedge) is distributed along drainages of the Mississippi River and also along the southeast coastal plain (Standley 2002). Range-wide it is found in wetland habitats and along floodplains. Carex crus-corvi tends to be rare on the edges of its range (to the north, west, and east) and is considered critically imperiled in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Ontario, Virginia, and North Carolina (NatureServe 2011). Minnesota represents the northwestern-most limit of the species' range (Wheeler 1981).

Carex crus-corvi has been collected only twice in Minnesota; first by J. H. Sandberg in Goodhue County in 1885 and later by Fassett and Hotchkiss in Wabasha County in 1926. Both of these collections were from bottomlands in the Mississippi River valley. Carex crus-corvi was listed as a special concern species in 1996.

  Basis for Delisting

When C. crus-corvi was designated a special concern species, some potential habitat still remained to be surveyed. Despite botanical inventory work in Goodhue and Wabasha counties and some efforts to specifically search for this species, no remnant populations of C. crus-corvi have been discovered. The loss of this species in Minnesota may be the result of the drastic alteration of its habitat caused by the extensive lock and dam system constructed on the Mississippi River in the 1930s. Carex crus-corvi is now considered extirpated from Minnesota. Therefore, special concern status is no longer necessary and the species was delisted in 2013.

  References and Additional Information

NatureServe. 2011. NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. . Accessed 5 January 2011.

Rosendahl, C. O., and J. W. Moore. 1947. A new variety of Sedum rosea from southeastern Minnesota and additional notes on the flora of the region. Rhodora 49:197-202.

Smith, W. R. 2018. Sedges and rushes of Minnesota: the complete guide to species identification. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. 696 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.

Standley, L. A. 2002. Carex sect. Vulpinae. Pages 273-278 in Flora of North America Editorial Committee, editors. Flora of North America north of Mexico. Volume 23. Oxford University Press, New York, New York.

Wheeler, G. A. 1981. A study of the genus Carex in Minnesota. Dissertation, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. 501 pp.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 1992. Endangered resources handbook 1724.5. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Madison, Wisconsin. 283 pp.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources [WIDNR]. 2010. Ravenfoot Sedge (Carex crus-corvi). . Accessed 31 August 2010.

Yatskievych, G. 1999. Steyermark's flora of Missouri. Second edition, Volume 1. Missouri Department of Conservation, Jefferson City and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, Missouri.