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Habit Plants perennial, densely cespitose, knottybased, 20–40 cm; rhizomes absent.
Culms

leafy at base, filiform, wiry.

Leaves

blades filiform, nearly reaching inflorescence tip or much shorter, to 0.3 mm thick, apex tapering.

Inflorescences

spikelet clusters mostly 2–6, simple or reduced to 1 spikelet, often with 2 capillary branches, one divaricate or reflexed, 1 ascending; leafy bracts single per cluster, filiform, setaceous, with clusters appearing lateral to bracts.

Spikelets

pale redbrown, ellipsoidlanceoloid, 5–6(–8) mm, apex acute to acuminate;

fertile scales narrowly ovate, 3–5(–6) mm, apex acute, midrib included or shortexcurrent.

Flowers

perianth bristles 6, not reaching past fruit midbody, stubby, plumose to near tip.

Fruits

3–8 per spikelet, 2–2.5 mm;

body light brown to brown, ellipsoid-obovoid, tumidly lenticular, 1.5–2 × 1.6–1.7 mm;

surfaces faintly, interruptedly crossrugulose, apically indented under tubercle;

tubercle lowconic, 0.5 mm, base flaring, circular.

Rhynchospora breviseta

Phenology Fruiting spring–summer.
Habitat Moist to wet sands or peats of bogs, depressions in savannas, open pinelands, pond shores
Elevation 0–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; VA; West Indies
Discussion

Rhynchospora breviseta is sympatric with R. oligantha over much of its range; intergrades have not been seen.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 23.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora
Sibling taxa
R. alba, R. baldwinii, R. brachychaeta, R. caduca, R. californica, R. capillacea, R. capitellata, R. careyana, R. cephalantha, R. chalarocephala, R. chapmanii, R. ciliaris, R. colorata, R. compressa, R. corniculata, R. crinipes, R. curtissii, R. debilis, R. decurrens, R. divergens, R. elliottii, R. eximia, R. fascicularis, R. fernaldii, R. filifolia, R. floridensis, R. fusca, R. globularis, R. glomerata, R. gracilenta, R. grayi, R. harperi, R. harveyi, R. indianolensis, R. inexpansa, R. inundata, R. knieskernii, R. kunthii, R. latifolia, R. macra, R. macrostachya, R. megalocarpa, R. megaplumosa, R. microcarpa, R. microcephala, R. miliacea, R. mixta, R. nitens, R. nivea, R. odorata, R. oligantha, R. pallida, R. perplexa, R. pineticola, R. pleiantha, R. plumosa, R. punctata, R. pusilla, R. rariflora, R. recognita, R. scirpoides, R. solitaria, R. stenophylla, R. thornei, R. torreyana, R. tracyi, R. wrightiana
Synonyms R. oligantha var. breviseta
Name authority (Gale) Channell: Rhodora 58: 336. (1956)
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