Eleocharis bella |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
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beautiful spikerush, delicate spikerush, pretty spikerush |
Gulf Coast spikerush, Gulfcoast spikesedge |
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Habit | Plants annual, rarely perennial, usually densely tufted; rhizomes rarely evident, 0.2–0.3 mm thick, internodes 1–5 mm, scales not evident. | Plants perennial; rhizomes 1–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–7.5 cm, scales 5 mm, tubers absent. |
Culms | often ascending or spreading, 4-angled or sometimes terete, sometimes sulcate, 1–7 cm × 0.2–0.3 mm, soft to firm. |
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 | sheaths stramineous, distal sheaths often splitting abaxially, slightly inflated distally, oblique, apex acute. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to acuminate, often prolonged into a slender awn to 4 mm. |
Spikelets | ovoid, 1.5–4 × 0.8–2 mm, apex acute; floral scales 4–15, 8 per mm of rachilla, colorless or reddish brown, midrib region green, ovate-lanceolate, not folded lengthwise, 1–1.5 × 0.5–0.7 mm, mibrib obscure to somewhat keeled, apex narrowly acute to acuminate, slightly recurved. |
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 absent; anthers 0.3–0.5 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 | with angles and longitudinal ridges ca. 6–10, rather prominent, broadly ovoid, less than 2 times longer then wide, (0.55–)0.65–0.75 × 0.3–0.4 mm, apex blunt, trabeculae distinct, 20–30. |
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 | grayish, mostly appressed, pyramidal, often depressed, 0.1–0.2 × 0.1–0.25 mm. |
dark brown, lamelliform to pyramidal, 0.1–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm. |
Eleocharis bella |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
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Phenology | Fruiting spring–summer. | Fruiting late spring–winter. |
Habitat | Bare, often drying soil of stream alluvium, lake margins, wet meadows | Brackish to saline marshes, shores, ditches, mostly coastal, often abundant or dominant |
Elevation | 200–2900 m (700–9500 ft) | 0 (Florida)–600 (Arkansas, Texas) m (0 (Florida)–2000 (Arkansas, Texas) ft) |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; ID; MT; NM; NV; OR; WA; Mexico (Chihuahua)
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AL; AR; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Nicaragua)
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Discussion | Eleocharis bella and E. acicularis seem to be amply distinct; putative hybrids are unknown. The occasional plants of E. bella with evident rhizomes, which include the type, are otherwise identical to plants apparently without rhizomes. Eleocharis bella is very similar to E. cancellata. There is an Illinois collection from Peoria in 1901, from the alluvial banks of the Illinois River. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 110. | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Scirpidium | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | E. acicularis var. bella, E. acicularis var. minima | |
Name authority | (Piper) Svenson: Rhodora 31: 201. (1929) | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 298. (1836) |
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