Carex diandra Schrank (Cyperaceae) (Finland, Lohja, Hongisto, 1989). – Image: Harri Harmaja (scanned from dried specimens). – Normal type of spike (on the left) of one plant and an untypical, multiple spike (on the right) from another, near-by plant. The perigynia are similar, and the deviating plant, too, belongs definitely to C. diandra. The multiple inflorescence apparently represents an atavism, a reborn plesiomorphic state of the inflorescence structure.
Created March 17, 2004.