Eleocharis radicans |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
|
---|---|---|
creeping spikerush, radical fiber optic spikerush, root spikerush |
Gulf Coast spikerush, Gulfcoast spikesedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, mat-forming; rhizomes 0.2–0.5 mm thick, longer internodes 5–10 mm, scales not evident. | Plants perennial; rhizomes 1–4 mm thick, soft to hard, longer internodes 3–7.5 cm, scales 5 mm, tubers absent. |
Culms | obscurely to ca. 10-ribbed when dry, terete, 1–12 cm × 0.4–1 mm, very soft, spongy. |
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. |
Leaves | distal leaf sheaths fugaceous, colorless, translucent, apex blunt. |
distal leaf sheaths persistent, membranous, apex acute to acuminate, often prolonged into a slender awn to 4 mm. |
Spikelets | 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. |
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. |
Flowers | perianth bristles equaling achene; anthers yellow to brown, 0.3–0.5 mm. |
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. |
Achenes | 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. |
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. |
Tubercles | brown, pyramidal, 0.15 × 0.15–0.2 mm. |
dark brown, lamelliform to pyramidal, 0.1–0.5 × 0.2–0.5 mm. |
Eleocharis radicans |
Eleocharis cellulosa |
|
Phenology | Fruiting spring–winter (Apr–Dec). | Fruiting late spring–winter. |
Habitat | Stream alluvium, lake margins, meadows, seeps, bogs | Brackish to saline marshes, shores, ditches, mostly coastal, often abundant or dominant |
Elevation | 100–1400 Ariz., Calif., Fla., La., Mich., Okla., Tex., Va. | 0 (Florida)–600 (Arkansas, Texas) m (0 (Florida)–2000 (Arkansas, Texas) ft) |
Distribution |
HI; n Mexico; West Indies; Central America (El Salvador); South America (Argentina, Chile)
|
AL; AR; FL; GA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Nicaragua)
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 112. | FNA vol. 23, p. 118. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Scirpidium | Cyperaceae > Eleocharis > subg. Limnochloa |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Scirpus radicans, E. acicularis var. radicans, E. lindheimeri | |
Name authority | (Poiret) Kunth: Enum. Pl. 2: 142. (1837) | Torrey: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 298. (1836) |
Web links |