Eleocharis cellulosa |
Eleocharis erythropoda |
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Gulf Coast spikerush, Gulfcoast spikesedge |
bald spike-rush, red-footed spikesedge, red-stem spikerush, redfoot spike-rush, spikesedge, éléocharide à tiges rouges |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomes 1–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–7.5 cm, scales 5 mm, tubers absent. | Plants perennial, mat-forming; rhizomes evident, long, 0.5–1.5 mm thick, soft to firm, cortex often breaking loose, longer internodes 5–30 mm, scales often fugaceous, 4–8 mm, membranous, not fibrous. |
Culms | 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. |
terete, often with 8–12 blunt ridges when dry, 8–80 cm × 0.3–1.4 mm, firm to soft, internally spongy. |
Leaves | distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to acuminate, often prolonged into a slender awn to 4 mm. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent, not splitting, proximally red (to stramineous), distally green to stramineous, usually inflated, often callose, membranous to papery, apex often red-brown, broadly obtuse to subacute, tooth sometimes present, to 0.1 mm. |
Spikelets | 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. |
ovoid to lanceoloid or nearly cylindric, 3–18 × 2–3(–4) mm, apex acute (to obtuse); proximal scale amplexicaulous, entire; subproximal scale with flower; floral scales often spreading in fruit, 15–50, 4–5 per mm of rachilla, medium brown to sometimes red-brown, midrib regions mostly stramineous to green, in proximal part of spikelet ovate, apex rounded, in distal part lanceolate, apex entire, acute, 2–3.5 × 1.5–1.7 mm, mostly carinate. |
Flowers | 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. |
perianth bristles 4 or absent, light brown to stramineous, stout, usually equal, equaling achene to slightly exceeding tubercle; stamens 3; anthers dark yellow to stramineous, 1–1.8 mm, apiculate; styles 2-fid. |
Achenes | 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. |
not persistent, dark yellow, stramineous, or dark brown, obovoid to obpyriform, biconvex, angles obscure, 0.9–1.6 × 0.7–1.2 mm, apex rounded, neck absent to long, smooth at 30X, or sometimes finely rugulose at 10–30X with 20 or more horizontal ridges in a vertical series. |
Tubercles | dark brown, lamelliform to pyramidal, 0.1–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm. |
brown to whitish, pyramidal, much higher than wide to, lower than wide, 0.35–0.65 × 0.2–0.6 mm. |
2n | = 16, 18, 19, 20. |
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Eleocharis cellulosa |
Eleocharis erythropoda |
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Phenology | Fruiting late spring–winter. | Fruiting summer. |
Habitat | Brackish to saline marshes, shores, ditches, mostly coastal, often abundant or dominant | Non-calcareous or calcareous fresh or brackish shores, marshes, meadows, fens, disturbed places |
Elevation | 0 (Florida)–600 (Arkansas, Texas) m (0 (Florida)–2000 (Arkansas, Texas) ft) | 0–2300 m (0–7500 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Nicaragua)
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AK; AR; AZ; CO; CT; DE; IA; ID; IL; IN; KS; KY; MA; ME; MI; MN; MO; MS; MT; NC; ND; NE; NH; NJ; NM; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; RI; SD; TN; TX; UT; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; WY; AB; BC; MB; NB; NT; ON; QC; SK
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Discussion | Eleocharis erythropoda is extremely variable. Intermediates with E. palustris variant b are common in the region of sympatry in the East, and with E. macrostachya variant b in the West, and E. erythropoda is sometimes difficult to distinguish from E. uniglumis. Eleocharis calva Torrey is an invalid name. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. | FNA vol. 23, p. 75. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleocharis > ser. Eleocharis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Scirpus glaucus | |
Name authority | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 298. (1836) | Steudel: Syn. Pl. Glumac. 2: 76. (1855) |
Web links |
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