Eleocharis cellulosa |
Eleocharis microcarpa |
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Gulf Coast spikerush, Gulfcoast spikesedge |
small-fruit spikesedge, smallfruit spikerush |
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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 usually annual, tufted, sometimes mat-forming via proliferating and arching inflorescences (stoloniferous), sometimes entirely vegetative; rhizomes absent. | ||||
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. |
often ascending or arching, quadrangular or broadly elliptic, 2–40 cm × 0.1–0.4(–0.6) mm, soft. |
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Leaves | distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to acuminate, often prolonged into a slender awn to 4 mm. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent or disintegrating, pale brown, green or red-brown, streaked or mottled red-brown or purple, translucent, membranous, apex narrowly acute. |
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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. |
basal spikelets absent; often proliferous, ovoid to ellipsoid or lanceoloid, terete, 2–10.7 × 1–2 mm, apex acute; proximal scale empty, persistent, amplexicaulous, dissimilar to floral scales, often longer, often resembling an involucral bract, ovate to lanceolate, midrib markedly thickened and broad and often prolonged beyond lamina; subproximal scale with flower; floral scales spiraled, colorless, whitish, or pale brown, streaked or mottled red-brown or purple, midribs green and red-brown or green and purple, ovate to elliptic, 0.8–1.5 × 0.4–0.8 mm, membranous, midrib obscure to prominent. |
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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 present or sometimes apparently absent; stamens 3; anthers 0.15–0.35; styles 3-fid. |
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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. |
whitish to olive or pale brown, sometimes spotted olive or red-brown, obovoid, trigonous (or subterete), angles prominent, 0.55–0.8 × 0.3–0.5 mm, apex constricted proximal to tubercle, smooth. |
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Tubercles | dark brown, lamelliform to pyramidal, 0.1–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm. |
green or pale brown to red-brown, trigonous. |
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Eleocharis cellulosa |
Eleocharis microcarpa |
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Phenology | Fruiting late spring–winter. | |||||
Habitat | Brackish to saline marshes, shores, ditches, mostly coastal, often abundant or dominant | |||||
Elevation | 0 (Florida)–600 (Arkansas, Texas) m (0 (Florida)–2000 (Arkansas, Texas) ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Nicaragua)
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AL; FL; GA; IN; LA; MA; MD; MI; MS; NC; NJ; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; West Indies
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Specimens of Eleocharis brittonii and E. microcarpa without achenes are often difficult to distinguish. More detailed study of the four apparent entities across the two species is warranted. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. | FNA vol. 23, p. 95. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleocharis > ser. Tenuissimae | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Name authority | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 298. (1836) | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 312. (1836) | ||||
Web links |