531 Carex vesicaria L.

Within this polymorphic species several lower taxa (or closely related species) are distinguished. The typical C. vesicaria (subsp. vesicaria) is considered as occurring through N. Eurasia and disjunctly in western N. America. The eastern part of its N. American range has not been possible to map. It falls, however, within the ranges of the four varieties occurring there, viz. varr. jejuna Fem., laurentiana Fem., monile (Tuckerm.) Fem. and raeana (Boott) Fem. (Fernald, Manual 1950, p. 381). Thus subsp. vesicaria is an almost circumpolar plant (Hultén, Circumpol. I, p. 68, 244 and map 60). The E. Asiatic population (E. Siberia, Manchuria, Korea, Japan) has been distinguished as var. tenuistachya Kuk. Among the Asiatic taxa, belonging to the C. vesicaria complex, the C. Asiatic, alpine C. dichroa Freyn and C. pamirensis C. B. Clarke are tentatively mapped. For further information see Hultén, 1. cit. The N. European, arctic-alpine taxon, described as C. stenolepis Less. (syn.: C. vesicaria var. alpigena Fr.), is not marked separately on the map (see Hylander, Nord. kärlväxtfl. 2/1966, p. 179f., and Hultén, Atlas 1971, map 417).