Rhynchospora caduca |
Rhynchospora divergens |
|
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anglestem beaksedge |
spreading beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 70–150 cm; rhizomes often present, short, scaly. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 10–60 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect or ascending, leafy, trigonous. |
erect or spreadingarching, linearfiliform, terete, leafy toward base. |
Leaves | exceeded by culm; blades linear, proximally 4–7 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering. |
overtopped by culm; blades ascending, filiform, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, margins deeply involute, then channeled, apex trigonous, setaceous. |
Inflorescences | terminal and axillary; clusters 3–6, mostly dense, narrowly to broadly turbinate, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeeding proximalmost inflorescences. |
spikelet clusters 1–2(–4), dense(–open), narrowly to broadly turbinate; branches capillary, variously elongate; leafy bracts setaceous, proximal exceeding clusters. |
Spikelets | rich brown, ovoid, (3–)4–5 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acuminate, midrib included or shortexcurrent. |
brownish, lanceellipsoid to fusiform, 2–2.5(–3) mm, apex acute; fertile scales broadly elliptic, 1.5 mm, apex narrowly rounded to broadly acute, apiculate, convexcupulate, midrib narrow, shortexcurrent or included. |
Flowers | perianth bristles mostly 6, exceeding tubercle tip. |
perianth absent. |
Fruits | mostly 3–4 per spikelet, 2–2.2 mm; body brown on short pedicellar (to 0.3 mm) stalk, broadly obovoid, lenticular, 1.3–1.5 × 1–1.5 mm, surfaces transversely rugulose, vertically finely striate and rectangularalveolate; tubercle compressed, triangular acuminate, 0.5–0.8 mm, edges setulose. |
1–3 or more per spikelet, (0.6–)0.7–0.9(–1) mm; body pale, glassy, obovoidlenticular, 0.6–0.7 × 0.4–0.5 mm, margins narrow, wirelike; surfaces finely striate, very finely reticulate; tubercle button depressedtriangular or patelliform, 0.1–0.15 mm, apiculate. |
Rhynchospora caduca |
Rhynchospora divergens |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall or all year (south). |
Habitat | Low meadows, clearings, marshes, marsh borders, seeps, bog moats, savannas, ditches, pine flatwoods, swamps | Moist sands, peats, silts or clays of low meadows, bogs, flatwoods, sometimes seeps over calcareous rock |
Elevation | 0–400 m (0–1300 ft) | 0–300 m (0–1000 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA
|
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Central America; West Indies (Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic) |
Discussion | Rhynchospora caduca has its closest relationships with the even more robust R. odorata Grisebach, on the one hand, and the swampinhabiting, more slender, and rhizomatous R. mixta Britton ex Small, on the other. Intergrades with R. odorata appear in Alabama and northwest Florida; intergrades with R. mixta appear where ranges overlap in both the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 223. | FNA vol. 23, p. 220. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum caducum, R. patula | |
Name authority | Elliott: Sketch Bot. S. Carolina 1: 62. (1816) | Chapman ex M. A. Curtis: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2, 7: 409. (1849) |
Web links |