Rhynchospora alba |
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rhynchospore blanc, white beak-rush, white beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 6–75 cm; rhizomes mostly absent. |
Culms | erect to curved, leafy, obscurely trigonous to nearly terete, few ribbed, slender. |
Inflorescences | clusters 1 or 2–3, then widely spaced, narrowly turbinate to hemispheric, 1.5–2.5 cm wide; subtending leafy bracts often exceeded by distal cluster. |
Spikelets | pale brown to nearly white, ellipsoid, 3.5–5.5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales elliptic, 3–3.5(–4) mm, apex acute or acuminate, midrib excurrent as mucro. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 10–12, slightly overtopping tubercle, retrorsely barbellate or rarely smooth, base often setose. |
Fruits | 1(–2) per spikelet, (2.3–)2.5–3 mm; body pale brown with paler center, stipitateobovoid, lenticular, 1.5–1.8(–2) × 0.9–1.2 mm; surfaces transversely striate, relatively smooth, rim narrow, flowing to tubercle base; tubercle narrowly triangularsubulate, 0.5–1.2 mm. |
Principal | leaves mostly overtopped by culm; blades narrowly linear to filiform, proximally flat, 0.5–1.5 mm, apex tapering, trigonous. |
Rhynchospora alba |
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Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Acid, sphagnous, boggy, open sites, poor fens, often on floating mats or peaty interstices of rocky shores |
Elevation | 0–2000 m (0–6600 ft) |
Distribution |
AK; CA; CT; DE; GA; ID; IL; IN; MA; MD; ME; MI; MN; NC; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OR; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WA; WI; WV; AB; BC; MB; NB; NF; NS; NT; ON; PE; QC; SK; Fla(?); West Indies (Puerto Rico); South America(?); Eurasia
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Discussion | The smooth-bristled Rhynchospora alba forma laeviseta Gale mostly occurs with the typical antrorsely barbellate type in Pennsylvania, the Great Lakes, British Columbia, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 214. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Schoenus albus, Dichromena alba, Phaeocephalum album, R. luguillensis, Triodon albus |
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Vahl: Enum. Pl. 2: 236. (1805) |
Web links |
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