Rhynchospora caduca
Rhynchospora solitaria
anglestem beaksedge
onespike beaksedge
erect or ascending, leafy, trigonous.
erect to ascending, narrowly linear, wandlike, terete, leafy proximal to middle.
exceeded by culm;
blades linear, proximally 4–7 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering.
erect to ascending;
blades proximally flat, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, apex tapering, tip abruptly blunt.
terminal and axillary;
clusters 3–6, mostly dense, narrowly to broadly turbinate, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeeding proximalmost inflorescences.
terminal, cluster of spikelets crowded, broadly turbinate to hemispheric, to 1.5 cm wide; leafy bracts linearsetaceous, slightly exceeding cluster.
rich brown, ovoid, (3–)4–5 mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acuminate, midrib included or shortexcurrent.
orangebrown, lancefusiform, 6–7 mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scales lanceovate, 4–5 mm, apex acuminate with excurved awn to 1 mm.
perianth bristles mostly 6, exceeding tubercle tip.
bristles 3–4, some reaching tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate.
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.
1–2 per spikelet, 2–2.1 mm;
body brown with paler center, obovoidlenticular, 1.5–1.7 × 1.2–1.3 mm, margins flowing to tubercle;
surfaces finely transversely striate with minute pits;
tubercle lowtriangular, 0.3–0.5 mm.
Rhynchospora caduca
Rhynchospora solitaria
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.)
Of conservation concern.
Rhynchospora solitaria appears to be the least common North American species of Rhynchospora with two of the five given localities apparently lost. The name “solitaria” is deceptive; the plants sometimes form small tufts of culms. The most distinctive feature in the field is the attractive orangebrown color of the narrow, acuminate, bristlescaled spikelets.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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