Fimbristylis thermalis |
Fimbristylis squarrosa |
|
---|---|---|
hot springs fimbristylis, hot springs fimbry |
|
|
Habit | Plants perennial, robust, 50–150 cm, cespitose or with culms solitary; rhizomes scaly, slender, elongate. | Plants annual, cespitose, delicate, to 30(–40) cm, bases soft; rhizomes absent. |
Leaves | nearly distichous, spreading to ascending, 1/2 length of culms; sheath margins entire, backs smooth to pubescent; ligule present, complete; blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, 2–3.5(–4) mm wide, margins scabrid-ciliate, abaxial surface sometimes pubescent. |
polystichous, spreading to ascending, to 1/2 length of culms or longer; sheaths entire or ciliate distally, backs hirtellous; ligule absent; blades linear-filiform, 0.5 mm wide, flat or involute, scabridciliate, often abaxially hirtellous. |
Inflorescences | anthelae simple or compound, longer than wide; scapes wandlike, nearly terete or slightly compressed, distally 1 mm thick, marginal ribs scabrid; longest primary involucral bract shorter than panicle. |
anthelae simple or compound, mostly open, ascending-branched, mostly longer than broad; scapes filiform, 0.5 mm wide, distally compressed, mostly glabrous; longer involucral bracts leafy, equaling or exceeded by anthela. |
Spikelets | pale dull brown, lance-ovoid to cylindric-ellipsoid, 10–12 mm; fertile scales ovate, 3.5–4 mm, apex broadly acute, ciliate, surface uniformly puberulent, midrib excurrent as mucro or cusp. |
greenish brown or brownish, lanceoloid or narrowly ellipsoid-cylindric, 4–5 mm; fertile scales ovate, acute, glabrous, midrib excurrent as slender, excurved cusp. |
Flowers | stamens 3; styles 2-fid, flat, fimbriate. |
stamens 1; styles 2-fid, slender, base flat, long-fimbriate, hairs recurved over achene summit. |
Achenes | dark brown, lenticular-obovoid, 1.5 mm, finely cancellate, with 20 or more longitudinal rows of horizontally rectangular pits per side. |
pale brown, lenticular, obovoid, 0.9 mm, smooth or very finely reticulate. |
2n | = 20. |
|
Fimbristylis thermalis |
Fimbristylis squarrosa |
|
Phenology | Fruiting spring–fall. | |
Habitat | Mineralized sands of hot springs, alkaline seep meadows | Moist sands or silts, low clearings, fields |
Elevation | 300–600 m (1000–2000 ft) | low to high elevations |
Distribution |
AZ; CA; NV; UT; Mexico (Baja California, Coahuila)
|
NJ; South America; West Indies (Cuba); Central America (Honduras); Asia; Africa; Indian Ocean Islands; Pacific Islands [Introduced in North America] |
Discussion | Fimbristylis squarrosa is an Old World temperate to tropical weed, mostly of Asia and Africa. While Fimbristylis squarrosa has been collected only once in North America from ballast at Camden, New Jersey (C. F. Parker, in 1865), the weedy and often ruderal nature of the species makes it a likely future adventive. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 124. | FNA vol. 23, p. 127. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Fimbristylis | Cyperaceae > Fimbristylis |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | F. comata, F. hirta, Isolepis hirta, Pocronostylis squarrosus | |
Name authority | S. Watson: Botany (Fortieth Parallel), 360. (1871) | Vahl: Enum. Pl. 2: 289. (1805) |
Web links |