The genus Carex (Cyperaceae) in Chile: a general update of its knowledge, with an identification key

Abstract

The knowledge of the genus Carex L. (Cyperaceae) in South America is scattered, without recent comprehensive treatments for any country. Within the continent, Chile is the country that harbors the most diversity, being the second in species richness and the first in endemic taxa. However, Chilean botanists must resort to several Argentinian floras for species identification, although these works leave uncovered many Chilean species. This has led many researchers and amateurs to neglect the amazing diversity of the genus in the country. In this work, we summarize the results of several years of research on the genus Carex in Chile. We here formally report six new national records, including the reinstatement of the Nahuelbuta endemism Carex reicheana Boeckeler. Also, relevant changes (regional additions or significant distributional changes) are reported for another 33 species, and nomenclatural comments on problematic names are given. The catalogue of Carex for Chile is updated with our own findings and previous published reports from 82 to 96 species.