Eleocharis albida |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
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white spikerush |
Gulf Coast spikerush, Gulfcoast spikesedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomes soft, longer internodes 2–4 cm, cortex loose, scales fugaceous, 6 mm, thinly membranous and translucent. | Plants perennial; rhizomes 1–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–7.5 cm, scales 5 mm, tubers absent. |
Culms | not rooting at tips, terete, 10–40 cm, soft to firm, smooth. |
terete or obtusely trigonous, 30–80 cm × 1–5 mm, soft to hard, not septate-nodulose, internally spongy, transverse septa incomplete; plants never forming filiform, flaccid culms. |
Leaves | distal leaf sheaths proximally brownish or sometimes reddish, distally stramineous to green. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to acuminate, often prolonged into a slender awn to 4 mm. |
Spikelets | ovoid to oblong-subcylindric, 4–12 × 2–3.5 mm, apex acute to rounded; proximal scale empty, clasping 1/2 of culm, like floral scales; subproximal 1 or 2 scales often empty; floral scales 20–100, 10 per mm of rachilla, entirely stramineous or sometimes red-brown, ovate, (1.5–)2–2.5 × 1.5 mm, apex broadly rounded, entire. |
not proliferous, 14–54 × 3–5.6 mm; rachilla joints without winglike remnants of floral scales; proximal scale empty, amplexicaulous, 2.5–4.9 mm; floral scales 40–180, 2–3 per mm of rachilla, stramineous to pale brown, flanks sometimes minutely dotted reddish, usually with pale to dark brown, reddish, or purplish submarginal band, obovate to suborbicular, widest in middle, 3.4–4.5(–6) × 3–4.8 mm, cartilaginous, membranous toward margins, margins broadly translucent, membranous, apex rounded. |
Flowers | perianth bristles (5–)6(–8), brown, stout, the longer equaling achene or tubercle, retrorsely spinulose; stamens 3; anthers brown, 1 mm. |
perianth bristles 6–7, medium brown to pale brown or reddish, slender, proximally slightly flattened, subequal to unequal, mostly exceeding achene, 2–3.4 mm, smooth or sometimes finely retrorsely spinulose; anthers reddish brown, 1.7–2.5 mm; styles 3-fid. |
Achenes | falling with scales, obovoid, angles keeled, 0.8–1 × 0.7–0.8 mm, apex with short neck. |
brown, biconvex, obpyriform, 2.2–2.8 × 1.3–1.9 mm, markedly sculptured at 10–15X, each face with (17–)20–24 rows of isodiametric to slightly transversely elongated cells, apex narrowed to a stout, often pale, spongy region 0.8–1.1 mm wide at base, 1/2–3/4 of achene width. |
Tubercles | whitish to brown, mammillate to pyramidal, 0.2–0.3 × 0.3–0.35 mm, 1/3 or less as wide as achene. |
dark brown, lamelliform to pyramidal, 0.1–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm. |
Eleocharis albida |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
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Phenology | Fruiting summer. | Fruiting late spring–winter. |
Habitat | Coastal saltmarsh edges, sloughs, beaches, dune depressions, ditches | Brackish to saline marshes, shores, ditches, mostly coastal, often abundant or dominant |
Elevation | 0 m (0 ft) | 0 (Florida)–600 (Arkansas, Texas) m (0 (Florida)–2000 (Arkansas, Texas) ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; NM; SC; TX; Mexico; Bermuda
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AL; AR; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Nicaragua)
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Discussion | In most spikelets, the bright brown stigmas contrast strikingly with the stramineous floral scales. We have not seen vouchers for H. K. Svenson’s (1937) reports of Eleocharis albida from Virginia. The collections we have seen from Maryland are from the 1800s. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 99. | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleocharis > ser. Albidae | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York. 3: 304. (1836) | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 298. (1836) |
Web links |