Eleocharis quadrangulata |
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four-angle spikerush, square-stem spike-rush, square-stem spikesedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial; rhizomes 1.5–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–8 cm, scales 5–10 mm, tubers absent. |
Culms | acutely quadrangular, (30–)45–105 cm × (1–)2–5.4 mm, soft to firm, internally spongy, transverse septa incomplete; plants never forming filiform, flaccid culms. |
Leaves | distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex narrowly acute to acuminate, sometimes prolonged into a bladelike portion to 8 cm. |
Spikelets | not proliferous, (15–)20–76 × 3–5(–6) mm; rachilla joints bearing obscure winglike remnants of floral scales; proximal scale empty, amplexicaulous, (1–)2.2–5.4 mm; floral scales (28–)45–135, 2–3 per mm of rachilla, stramineous to pale brown, usually with pale to dark brown submarginal band, midrib region sometimes greenish, broadly obovate to ovate, (4–)4.5–6.2 × 2.8–5 mm, subcartilaginous, apex rounded to obtuse. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 6–7, whitish to brown, slender, often markedly unequal, shorter than achene or some equalling tubercle, sparsely retrorsely spinulose to smooth; anthers stramineous to red-brown, 2.3–2.9 mm; styles 3-fid, sometimes 2-fid. |
Achenes | yellow or pale green to brown or purplish, biconvex, obovoid to obpyriform, 1.8–3 × 1.3–2 mm, almost smooth to markedly sculptured at 10–15X, each face with 19–38 rows of almost linear, transversely elongated cells, which are sometimes isodiametric at achene base, apex often constricted to neck 0.3–0.4 mm wide. |
Tubercles | dark brown or whitish, deltoid to high-pyramidal or lanceoloid, 0.7–1.5 × 0.4–1 mm, often spongy. |
Eleocharis quadrangulata |
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Phenology | Fruiting early summer–winter. |
Habitat | Shallow water of fresh lake and pond shores, marshes |
Elevation | 10–600 m (0–2000 ft) |
Distribution |
AR; CA; CT; DE; FL; GA; IL; IN; KY; LA; MA; MI; MO; MS; NC; NJ; NY; OH; OK; OR; PA; SC; TX; VA; WI; WV; ON; s to c Mexico
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Discussion | We have not seen voucher specimens for the reports of Eleocharis quadrangulata from Kansas. Plants with greenish achenes, longer bristles, and longer anthers than the average are known from Tennessee. The tubercles of Eleocharis quadrangulata are often spongy as in E. obtusetrigona. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 120. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Scirpus quadrangulatus, E. quadrangulata var. crassior, Scirpus albomarginatus, Scirpus marginatus |
Name authority | (Michaux) Roemer & Schultes: in J. J. Roemer et al., Syst. Veg. 2: 155. (1817) |
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