Carex filkukae Podp ., Květena Moravy VI /3: 143, 1928.

≡ Vignea filkukae (Podp.) Soják, Čas. Nár. Muz. v Praze, Řada Přír. 148(3–4): 195, 1980.

= Carex leporina L., Sp. Pl. 2: 973, 1753.

Lectotype (designated here): “ Brno: Evanovice, Kouty, mokrá louka”, 30 June 1916, leg. V. Filkuka, BRNU no. 18123! [sub C. brizoides × leporina , later re-identified by J. Podpěra as C. ×filkukae; rev. R. Řepka 2023 as C. leporina] (Fig. 2).

Isolectotypes: BRNU no. 17894! [sub C. brizoides × leporina ; rev. R. Řepka 1985 as C. brizoides]; BRNU no. 621211! [sub C. brizoides × leporina ; rev. R. Řepka 1985 as C. leporina].

The epithet filkukae refers to Vilém Filkuka (1859–1921), a regional botanist and teacher in Brno-Řečkovice. In 1916, V. Filkuka collected an unidentified sedge at a locality called Kouty in Brno-Ivanovice (“Ewanowitz”), which is a small stream valley situated west of the town quarter. This specimen was passed on to J. Podpěra, who identified it as the hybrid C. leporina L. 1753: 973 × C. brizoides L. 1755: 31, which he later described as a new nothospecies, C. × filkukae, named in honour of the collector of the plant (Podpěra 1928: 143). Later on, the epithet was also combined in the genus Vignea, in the rank of nothospecies as well (Soják 1980).

Originally, two herbarium sheets in BRNU were associated to the protologue. The first, here selected as lectotype, was repeatedly (in 2016 and 2022) studied by the first author of this paper. All features of the plant were found to correspond to C. leporina, while there were no traits resembling C. brizoides. The characters of specimens generally shared with C. leporina were prolonged upper internodes, stem foliated even in its upper part, and an inflorescence comprised of four gynandrous spikes arranged in a dense way. The plant is, however, somewhat atypical in several traits influenced by environmental conditions rather than hybridisation. It has relatively narrow leaves, and female flowers have pale, light brown to silver coloured scales, which is typical of plants growing in fully shaded habitats; such an ecomorphosis is recognised as var. argyroglochin (Hornem.) W.D.J. Koch 1837: 753. Utricles and achenes could not be studied, as the plant was collected in an early phenophase (just after flowering), which was also noted by Podpěra (1928). Delayed flowering and fruiting time may also be a result of shading. Nevertheless, no evidence for hybrid origin was found in the specimen selected as the lectotype.

The other sheet initially designated as “ C. leporina × brizoides ” by J. Podpěra actually contained a mixed sample of C. leporina and C. brizoides. After revision carried out by the first author in 1985, the material was split. Most of the material pertains to C. brizoides, while C. leporina is only represented by a single stem and inflorescence with five immature spikes; this plant is similar to that selected as lectotype. These two specimens should be regarded as isolectotypes.

Because the collected plants were immature, the original description of C. × filkukae provided by Podpěra (1928) was paradoxically not based on the herbarium material, but largely (with just slight modifications) adopted from Ascherson & Graebner (1904: 79–80), who characterised a hybrid of C. brizoides × C. leporina without giving it a binomial name. This description does, however, not fairly comply with the herbarium specimens labelled as C. × filkukae by J. Podpěra. In fact, the specimen here designated as lectotype diverges from the protologue in several morphological traits, which are summarised in Tab. 1. Nonetheless, taxonomic identity of the type is crucial for the interpretation of the name.