Eleocharis pachycarpa |
Eleocharis obtusetrigona |
|
---|---|---|
black sand spikerush, broad fruit spikerush |
spikerush |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, forming dense clumps, often stoloniferous. | Plants perennial; rhizomes 3–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–8 cm, scales more than 1 cm, tubers absent. |
Rhizomes | present, caudexlike, mostly concealed by crowded culms, vertical or ascending, 2 mm thick; internodes very short, scales disintegrating to fibers, 4 mm, papery. |
|
Culms | erect to ascending or arching, acutely quadrangular, deeply sulcate, 7–50 cm × 0.3–0.5 mm, smooth, firm. |
obscurely 3–5-angled to terete, 40–110 cm × (2–)3.6–7.5 mm, soft, not septate-nodulose, internally spongy, transverse septa incomplete; plants never forming filiform, flaccid culms. |
Leaves | distal leaf sheaths persistent, proximally brown or reddish, distally stramineous to green, thickly membranous, apex acute or subacute. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to long-acuminate, sometimes prolonged into a slender bladelike portion to 6 cm. |
Spikelets | basal spikelets absent; often proliferous, ovoid, terete, 3–10 × 2–3 mm, apex acute; proximal scale empty, amplexicaulous, similar to floral scales; subproximal scale with a flower; floral scales spiraled, 8–15, 4 per mm of rachilla, orange-brown, midrib region broadly stramineous or like flanks, ovate, 2–3 × 1.2–2 mm, membranous, midrib evident to prominent, apex acute (to rounded). |
not proliferous, 12–43 × 3.5–6 mm; rachilla joints bearing obscure winglike remnants of floral scales; proximal scale without a flower, amplexicaulous, 3.6–7.5 mm; floral scales 30–125, 1–3 per mm of rachilla, greenish to pale brown, often with pale to dark brown submarginal band or a subapical darker spot, ovate to oblong, 4.3–5.8 × 2.5–3.3 mm, cartilaginous, often membranous toward margins, margins broadly translucent, membranous, apex rounded to acute. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 6 or fewer, stramineous, unequal, some or most equaling achene, spinules obscure, sparse, retrorse, sharply acute. |
perianth bristles 6–7, stramineous, margins and spinules reddish to pale brown, stout, flattened, subequal, exceeding achene, 2.5–3.2 mm, coarsely retrorsely spinulose; anthers reddish brown, 1.5–1.9 mm; styles 3-fid or sometimes 2-fid. |
Stamens | 3; anthers 1.2–1.5 mm. |
|
Styles | 3-fid. |
|
Achenes | stramineous, broadly obpyriform, equilaterally trigonous, angles evident, blunt, 0.9–1.1 × 0.7–0.9 mm, apex nearly truncate, smooth or obscurely papillose or rugulose at 20X. |
pale brown, biconvex, obpyriform, 1.7–2.3 × 1.2–1.5 mm, clearly sculptured at 10–15X, each face with 10–15 rows of transversely elongated cells, often isodiametric at achene base, apex usually constricted to neck 0.5–0.6 mm wide. |
Tubercles | stramineous, pyramidal, trigonous, usually acute, proximally trilobed, the lobes decurrent on achene, 0.5–0.9 × 0.7–0.9 mm. |
stramineous, lamelliform to high-pyramidal, 0.8–1.1 × 0.7–0.9 mm. |
Eleocharis pachycarpa |
Eleocharis obtusetrigona |
|
Phenology | Fruiting late spring–summer. | Fruiting spring–fall. |
Habitat | Fresh shores, streambeds, groundwater seeps | Fresh, permanent water in ditches |
Elevation | 100–1400 m (300–4600 ft) | 0–20 m (0–100 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; NV; South America (Argentina, Chile) [Introduced in North America; introduced in Australia]
|
TX; e Mexico; South America; Central America (Nicaragua) |
Discussion | H. K. Svenson (1957) placed Eleocharis pachycarpa in ser. Sulcatae Svenson. Contrary to his statement that perianth bristles are often lacking, they are present in all of the specimens we have seen. Superficially similar to E. bolanderi, from which it may readily be distinguished by its oblique leaf sheath summits, 4-angled culms, pyramidal tubercles, and often proliferating spikelets. The earliest North American specimen we have seen was collected in 1919 in Tuolumne County, California. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
In North America Eleocharis obtusetrigona is known from only five collections, two of them originally identified as E. fistulosa (Poiret) Link [= E. acutangula (Roxburgh) Schultes], which is common in Mexico and South America. The original description of E. obtusetrigona is poor and does not clearly distinguish E. obtusangula from E. acutangula. H. K. Svenson (1939) included E. obtusetrigona in E. acutangula, which can be distinguished by its acutely trigonous culms as well as its smaller floral scales and achenes. The tubercles are often spongy as in E. quadrangulata. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 91. | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Eleocharis > sect. Eleocharis > ser. Tenuissimae | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Limnochloa obtusetrigona, E. fistulosa var. obtusetrigona, E. mutata var. obtusetrigona | |
Name authority | E. Desvaux: in C. Gay, Fl. Chil. 6: 174. (1853) | (Lindley & Nees) Steudel: Syn. Pl. Glumac. 2: 80. (1855) |
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