The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

mountain spikerush

Habit Plants perennial, densely tufted or mat-forming; rhizomes mostly hidden by culms and roots, fairly long, 3 mm thick, hard, cortex persistent, longer internodes to 3 mm, scales persistent, ca. 8 mm, membranous, slightly fibrous.
Culms

terete, when dry with few to many blunt ridges, 10–70 cm × 0.5–2 mm, soft to firm, internally hollow with complete transverse septa 2–5 mm apart, usually evident externally except in narrowest culms.

Leaves

distal leaf sheaths persistent, not splitting, proximally dark red, distally green or brown, slightly callose, papery, apex obtuse, tooth present, 0.3–1 mm.

Spikelets

ovoid, 6–21 × 3–4 mm, apex acute to obtuse;

proximal scale amplexicaulous, entire;

subproximal scale empty or with flower;

floral scales appressed in fruit, 100–500+, (15–)30–40 per mm of rachilla, medium brown to colorless, midrib regions greenish to colorless, ovate, 1.5–2.5 × 1–1.5 mm, entire, apex rounded to subacute, carinate in distal part of spikelet.

Flowers

perianth bristles 6–8, pale brown, medium stout, from less than 1/2 achene length to sometimes slightly exceeding tubercle, retrorsely spinulose;

stamens 1;

anthers dark yellow to brown, 0.6–1 mm;

styles 3-fid or some 2-fid.

Achenes

falling with scales, dark green or medium brown, obovoid to obpyriform, biconvex or sometimes some compressedtrigonous in same spikelet, lateral angles prominent, abaxial angle absent or evident, not prominent, 0.8–1.1 × 0.7–0.8 mm, neck short or absent, finely cancellate at 10–20X, sometimes finely rugulose, with 15 horizontal ridges in vertical series.

Tubercles

brown, pyramidal, mostly depressed, 0.2–0.35 × 0.2–0.4 mm.

Eleocharis montana

Phenology Fruiting winter–fall.
Habitat Fresh temporary or artificial ponds, ditches, burned savannas, swamp margins
Elevation 20–90[–2800] m (100–300[–9200] ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AZ; FL; GA; LA; TX; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The taxonomy of the septate-culmed species here treated as Eleocharis montana and E. ravenelii should be evaluated. According to H. K. Svenson (1957), the type of E. montana from near Bogotá, Colombia, is the mountain extreme of the species; it has swollen culms with no visible septation.

Specimens from Acadia and St. Landry parishes, Louisiana, are intermediate between Eleocharis montana and E. montevidensis.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 23, p. 79.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleocharis > ser. Eleocharis
Sibling taxa
E. acicularis, E. aestuum, E. albida, E. ambigens, E. atropurpurea, E. baldwinii, E. bella, E. bernardina, E. bicolor, E. bifida, E. bolanderi, E. brachycarpa, E. brittonii, E. cancellata, E. cellulosa, E. coloradoensis, E. compressa, E. cylindrica, E. decumbens, E. diandra, E. elliptica, E. elongata, E. engelmannii, E. equisetoides, E. erythropoda, E. fallax, E. flavescens, E. geniculata, E. intermedia, E. interstincta, E. kamtschatica, E. lanceolata, E. macrostachya, E. mamillata, E. melanocarpa, E. microcarpa, E. minima, E. montevidensis, E. nana, E. nigrescens, E. nitida, E. obtusa, E. obtusetrigona, E. occulta, E. ovata, E. pachycarpa, E. palustris, E. parishii, E. parvula, E. quadrangulata, E. quinqueflora, E. radicans, E. ravenelii, E. retroflexa, E. reverchonii, E. robbinsii, E. rostellata, E. suksdorfiana, E. tenuis, E. torticulmis, E. tortilis, E. tricostata, E. tuberculosa, E. uniglumis, E. vivipara, E. wolfii
Synonyms Scirpus montanus, E. montana var. nodulosa, E. nodulosa
Name authority (Kunth) Roemer & Schultes: in J. J. Roemer et al., Syst. Veg. 2: 153. (1817)
Web links