Eleocharis cellulosa |
Eleocharis radicans |
|
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Gulf Coast spikerush, Gulfcoast spikesedge |
creeping spikerush, radical fiber optic spikerush, root 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 perennial, mat-forming; rhizomes 0.2–0.5 mm thick, longer internodes 5–10 mm, scales not evident. |
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. |
obscurely to ca. 10-ribbed when dry, terete, 1–12 cm × 0.4–1 mm, very soft, spongy. |
Leaves | distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to acuminate, often prolonged into a slender awn to 4 mm. |
distal leaf sheaths fugaceous, colorless, translucent, apex blunt. |
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, 2–3 × 1–1.5 mm, apex acute; scales 5–15, 5–7 per mm of rachilla, colorless to stramineous, rarely slightly reddish, medially broadly greenish to colorless, faintly 3–5-veined, often ovate, membranous, fleshy; proximal scale 2–2.5 × 0.7 mm, other scales 1.5–2 × 0.7 mm, midrib obscure to slightly keeled, apex acute to rounded. |
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 equaling achene; anthers yellow to brown, 0.3–0.5 mm. |
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. |
brownish, angles plus longitudinal ridges ca. 7, narrowly obovoid, 2 times longer than wide, 0.75–0.9 × 0.35–0.4 mm, trabeculae ca. 50, distinct. |
Tubercles | dark brown, lamelliform to pyramidal, 0.1–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm. |
brown, pyramidal, 0.15 × 0.15–0.2 mm. |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
Eleocharis radicans |
|
Phenology | Fruiting late spring–winter. | Fruiting spring–winter (Apr–Dec). |
Habitat | Brackish to saline marshes, shores, ditches, mostly coastal, often abundant or dominant | Stream alluvium, lake margins, meadows, seeps, bogs |
Elevation | 0 (Florida)–600 (Arkansas, Texas) m (0 (Florida)–2000 (Arkansas, Texas) ft) | 100–1400 Ariz., Calif., Fla., La., Mich., Okla., Tex., Va. |
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Nicaragua)
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HI; n Mexico; West Indies; Central America (El Salvador); South America (Argentina, Chile)
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. | FNA vol. 23, p. 112. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Scirpidium |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Scirpus radicans, E. acicularis var. radicans, E. lindheimeri | |
Name authority | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 298. (1836) | (Poiret) Kunth: Enum. Pl. 2: 142. (1837) |
Web links |