Rhynchospora debilis
savannah beaksedge
erect to arching or spreading, leafy, ± filiform, ± terete, stiff to rather lax.
exceeded by culm;
blades linearfiliform, proximally shallowly concave, 1 mm, apex tapering, trigonous, blunt or broadly acute.
spikelet clusters 1–2, mostly compact, turbinate to hemispheric; leafy bracts setaceous, exceeding spikelet clusters.
dark redbrown, ovoid, 2–3 mm, apex acute;
fertile scales obovate, 1.5–1.7(–2) mm, apex broadly rounded or retuse, midrib excurrent as cusp or mucro to 0.5 mm.
bristles 6 or vestigial, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
1–2 per spikelet,1.7–2 mm;
body brown with large pale center, lenticular, broadly obovoid to ± orbicular, 1.2–1.5 × 1.4–1.6 mm;
tubercle flat, triangular, concave-sided, 0.4–0.6 mm, sometimes apiculate.
Rhynchospora debilis
Rhynchospora debilis is very similar to R. wrightiana except it has smaller spikelet clusters and more depressed fruit tubercles. It is a common invader of cutover and bulldozed low pineland where it assumes a lowspreading habit, its many culms radiating from the common center much like spokes in a wheel.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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