Eleocharis geniculata |
Eleocharis compressa |
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bent spike-rush, Canada spikesedge, capitate spike-rush |
flat-stem spikerush, flat-stem spikesedge, unknown |
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Habit | Plants tufted, without creeping rhizomes. | Plants perennial, mat-forming; rhizomes evident, short to rather long, 2–3 mm thick, firm, cortex persistent, internodes very short to 2 mm, scales often decaying to coarse fibers, 5–12 mm, papery. | ||||
Culms | to 45 cm × 0.2–1 mm. |
subterete to greatly compressed, to 5 times as wide as thick, often with 2–12 ridges, 8–45 cm × (0.2–)0.5–1.8 mm, firm to hard, spongy. |
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Leaves | distal leaf sheaths persistent, firm, distally tightly sheathing, apex acute. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent, not splitting, proximally red, distally green to stramineous, papery, apex usually red-brown, broadly obtuse to subtruncate, callose, tooth absent. |
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Spikelets | orbicular to ovoid, 1–9 × 1–4 mm, apex rounded to acute; proximal scale without flower, not amplexicaulous; floral scales to 125, 11–14 per mm of rachilla, tightly appressed, dark red-brown to stramineous, ovate to elliptic, 0.8–3 × 0.6–2(–2.3) mm, membranous to cartilaginous, apex rounded to acute. |
ovoid, 4–8 × 2–4 mm, apex acute; proximal scale clasping 3/4 of culm to amplexicaulous, entire; subproximal scale empty or with flower; floral scales spreading in fruit, 20–60, 6 per mm of rachilla, medium brown to very dark brown, sometimes stramineous or colorless, midrib region often paler, ovate, 2–3(–4) × 1–1.5 mm, apex acute to acuminate, the apical colorless hyaline region mostly longer than wide and 0.6–1.2 mm, in proximal part of spikelet 2-fid to shallowly cut, rarely entire, in distal part often entire, carinate in distal part of spikelet. |
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Flowers | perianth bristles (0–)4–8, typically 7, red-brown, rarely whitish, vestigial to much exceeding tubercle, typically equaling achene, spinules few to dense; styles 2-fid. |
perianth bristles 0–5, stramineous, length variable, to equaling achene, obscurely to clearly retrorsely spinulose; stamens 3; anthers yellow- to orange-brown, 0.7–2 mm; styles 3-fid or some 2-fid. |
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Achenes | brown ripening to black, biconvex, orbicular to obpyriform, 0.5–1.1 × 0.3–0.7 mm, apex rarely constricted proximal to tubercle, very finely reticulate at 40X. |
falling with scales or some persistent, yellow-brown or dark brown, obovoid to obpyriform, nearly equilaterally to compressed-trigonous or usually some biconvex, angles evident or obscure, 0.8–1.1 × 0.6–0.8 mm, neck very short, finely rugulose and sometimes finely (or coarsely) cancellate at 10–20X with 14–20 blunt horizontal ridges in a vertical series. |
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Tubercles | stramineous to whitish, umbonate to subconic, 0.2–0.4 × 0.2–0.5 mm, apex rounded to acute. |
brown (to whitish), pyramidal, usually depressed, often rudimentary, 0.15–0.3 × 0.2–0.35 mm. |
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2n | = 10. |
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Eleocharis geniculata |
Eleocharis compressa |
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Phenology | Fruiting spring–winter (Mar–Dec). | |||||
Habitat | Brackish creeks, canal banks, dune depressions, hammocks, irrigation ditches, lakeshores, lagoons, mangrove thickets, maritime mud flats, ditches, salt marshes | |||||
Elevation | 0–1500 m (0–4900 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AZ; CA; FL; GA; IL; IN; LA; MI; MS; NE; NM; NV; OH; OK; PA; TX; ON; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Bermuda; Asia; Africa; Pacific Islands
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AL; AR; CO; DC; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; MD; MI; MN; MO; MS; ND; NE; NM; NY; OH; OK; PA; SD; TN; TX; VA; WI; WV; BC; MB; ON; QC; SK
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Discussion | The name Eleocharis caribaea (Rottbøll) S. F. Blake is considered by most contemporary authorities to be misapplied (K. L. Wilson 1990). Eleocharis geniculata has been reported from South Carolina; I have not seen a voucher. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). Eleocharis compressa is extremely variable. After E. bifida and E. occulta are segregated from E. compressa (type from Ohio) and E. acutisquamata (type from Texas), the remaining plants intergrade completely and are best treated as varieties of E. compressa (S. G. Smith 2001). Because some plants of E. compressa approach E. elliptica some authors have treated E. compressa as a synonym of E. elliptica. Putative E. compressa × E. erythropoda hybrids from southeastern Ontario have been described (P. M. Catling 1994), and I have observed similar putative hybrids in the field in southeastern Wisconsin. Introgression from E. erythropoda is suggested by the presence in many plants of E. compressa of some 2-fid styles and biconvex achenes and some or rarely all entire floral scales, including the type. Some collections of E. compressa from the District of Columbia region and Tennessee have distinctly cancellate achenes as is common in E. tenuis var. verrucosa. The earlier name E. acuminata (Muhlenberg) Nees, name confused (H. K. Svenson 1932), is often given as a synonym of E. compressa (S. G. Smith 2001). Both 2n = 24 and 2n = 26 cytotypes for E. compressa from south-central United States have been reported (L. J. Harms 1972). Fertile artificial hybrids between these two cytotypes were also reported, as well as artificial E. compressa (2n = 36) × E. elliptica (2n = 38) hybrids with meiotic pairing and pollen stainability more than 90 percent. I have not seen voucher specimens for those artificial hybrids or for any of the published chromosone number reports for E. compressa, except for a count of 2n = 24 (presumably made by L. J. Harms) that is given on a herbarium specimen label of E. compressa var. acutisquamata from Kansas (S. G. Smith 2001). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 101. | FNA vol. 23. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleogenus > ser. Maculosae | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleocharis > ser. Eleocharis | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Scirpus geniculatus, E. capitata, E. caribaea, E. dispar | E. elliptica var. compressa | ||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Roemer & Schultes: in J. J. Roemer et al., Syst. Veg. 2: 150. (1817) | Sullivant: Amer. J. Sci. Arts 42: 50. (1842) | ||||
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