Rhynchospora eximia |
Rhynchospora torreyana |
|
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Florida beaksedge |
Torrey's beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial or annual, single or cespitose, (10–)20–50 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 50–100 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | spreading to erect, leafy, obtusely triangular. |
ascending-excurved, leafy, ± terete, slender. |
Leaves | often exceeding inflorescences; blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering. |
ascending, overtopped by culm; blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, 2–3 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering. |
Inflorescences | terminal and axillary, clusters of 1–5 corymbs; leafy bracts much exceeding corymbs. |
spikelet clusters (1–)2–3, widely spaced, open to dense, broadly to narrowly turbinate, branches ascending to slightly spreading, capillary; leafy bracts setaceous-tipped, overtopping all but distal clusters. |
Spikelets | few to several, on ascending, stiff, short-to-elongate branches, red-brown to brown, lanceoloid, (5–)6–10 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales many, ovate, shallowly convex, 5 mm, apex acuminate; midrib short-excurrent or not. |
light red-brown, ovoid, 3.5–5 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute, midrib excurrent as cusp or mucro. |
Flowers | perianth absent. |
perianth bristles 6, reaching at most 2/3 length of fruit body, antrorsely barbellate. |
Fruits | 1.5 mm; body dark brown to black, tumidly lenticular, nearly orbicular, 0.8–0.9 × 0.6–0.7 mm, margins grooved, discontinuous with tubercle; surfaces transversely wavyrugose, ridges of contiguous rows of vertical, linear, raised cells; tubercle broad, low triangular, 0.2–0.3 mm, crustaceous, base capping fruit summit, raised at ends, apex shortacuminate. |
1–4(–5) per spikelet, 2 mm; body brown, strongly compressed, obovoid-ellipsoid, 1.4–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm, margins flowing to tubercle; surfaces finely transversely rugose, intervals with narrow vertical alveolae; tubercle flat, low-triangular, 0.2–0.3(–0.5) mm. |
Rhynchospora eximia |
Rhynchospora torreyana |
|
Phenology | Fruiting all year. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Moist to wet sandy peaty swales, pond shores, depressions in savannas, moist waste areas | Sands and peats of low meadows, savannas, flatwoods, pond shores, ditch banks |
Elevation | 0–100[–1000] m (0–300[–3300] ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
FL; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; Africa |
AL; CT; DE; FL; GA; MA; MD; NC; NJ; NY; RI; SC; VA |
Discussion | Rhynchospora eximia is often found at elevations from near sea level to over 1000 m in the tropics. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 216. | FNA vol. 23, p. 224. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Spermodon eximius, Psilocarya schiedeana, R. oxycephala, R. psilocaroides | Phaeocephalum torreyanum |
Name authority | (Nees) Boeckeler: Linnaea 37: 601. (1873) | A. Gray: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 197. (1835) |
Web links |