Section PHAESTOGLOCHIN
Six species from Renfrew County belong to this section. These are upland species and for that reason should not be confused with the similar looking species from Section STELLULATAE that inhabit wetlands. Furthermore, the members of Section PHAESTOGLOCHIN have androgynous spikes (staminate on top). These six species appear to be uncommon to rare in Renfrew County with very few records for any of them.
C. rosea and C. radiata are a closely similar species pair; their inflorescences are superficially identical (Figure 1). The leaves of C. rosea are generally wider than C. radiata but a close examination of the perigynia is required to confidently separate these two species. The tightly coiled stigmas of C. rosea are noticeably thicker than the simply bent stigmas of C. radiata (Figure 2). The perigynium shapes are subtly different as a result of the achenes developing closer to the beak in C. radiata (Figure 3). The perigynium of C. rosea taper smoothly to the beak while the perigynia of C. radiata form a slight shoulder below the beak (Figure 3).
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Figure 1. Inflorescences of the C. rosea - C. radiata species pair.
Figure 2. Immature spikelets of the C. rosea - C. radiata species pair showing the thicker tightly coiled stigmas on C. rosea and thinner bent stigmas on C. radiata.
Figure 3. Perigynia of the C. rosea - C. radiata species pair. The faces alternate (adaxial leftmost) in this image. Note the shape of the achene visible on the abaxial face of C. radiata making the perigynia beak appear to taper more abruptly when compared to C. rosea.