Rhynchospora fascicularis |
Rhynchospora floridensis |
|
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fascicled beaksedge |
Florida whitetop |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 100–150 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 20–50 cm, wiry; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect to excurvedascending, narrowly linear to ± filiform, terete to obscurely trigonous, leafy, densely so toward base, stiff to rather lax. |
erect to spreading, leafybased; scapes nearly filiform, nearly trigonous, few ribbed. |
Leaves | overtopped by culm; blades linear, ascending, proximally flat, 1–4 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering gradually. |
spreading to erect, exceeded by scape; blades filiform to linear, proximally flat or involute, becoming involute, 0.4–2 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous. |
Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–3(–4), proximal mostly widely spaced, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric, to 2 cm broad; leafy bracts subulate, exceeding proximal spikelets, slightly or not exceeding most distal clusters. |
terminal, solitary, headlike, dense, white, leafyinvolucrate, 0.5–1 cm wide; involucral bracts 3–6, spreading to recurved, whitebased, greentipped, narrowly linear, longest bract elongatesubulate, 4–8 cm × 2–5 mm. |
Spikelets | redbrown, narrowly ovoid, (3–)3.5–5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales ovate, 3–3.5(–4) mm, apex acute, mostly with cusp or mucro 0.5–1 mm. |
white, ovoid, 4–6 mm; scales several, boatshaped, basal ones with ciliolate keel, fertile ones 3–3.8 mm. |
Flowers | bristles 5–6, from rudimentary to reaching tubercle tip, or (rarely) beyond, antrorsely barbellate. |
perianth absent. |
Fruits | 1–3 per spikelet, (1.5–)2–2.2(–2.5) mm; body dark brown with pale center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid to ± orbicular, (1.3–)1.5–1.7(–1.9) × 1–1.5 mm, margins pale, narrow or narrowly rounded, flowing to tubercle; surfaces dull, minutely longitudinally striate; tubercle compressed, triangular to triangularsubulate, 0.5–0.7(–0.9) mm. |
1–1.2 mm; body yellow to black, nearly orbicular, tumidly lenticular, 0.8–1 × 0.6–0.7(–1) mm; surface lattices shortlinear, vertical in fine undulating rows, with ends raised to rounded, transverse rugulosities; tubercle lowtriangular, lunate, 0.2–0.3 mm, apex acute, blunt or apiculate. |
Rhynchospora fascicularis |
Rhynchospora floridensis |
|
Phenology | Fruiting late spring–fall or all year (south). | Fruiting spring–fall, or all year. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of interdunal swales, depressions in savannas, open flatwoods, and seep-bog edges | Moist open areas over reef limestones, rocky pine savanna |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 0–50 m (0–200 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA; Central America; Bermuda
|
FL; Mexico (Chiapas, Yucatán); West Indies (Bahamas); Central America (Belize) |
Discussion | In her revision, S. Gale (1944) treated var. distans as the more slender version of the species, one with a smaller inflorescence, more distinctly margined fruit body, and consistently elongate perianth bristles. All those character states appear to vary independently over the total range of the species. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Rhynchospora floridensis is much like R. colorata, with which it is often associated; it can be easily distinguished by its strictly cespitose habit and its ciliolate spikelet scale keels. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 239. | FNA vol. 23, p. 216. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Schoenus fascicularis, Dichromena distans, Phaeocephalum fasciculare, Phaeocephalum distans, R. distans, R. distans var. fascicularis, R. dommucensis, R. fascicularis var. distans, Schoenus distans | Dichromena floridensis |
Name authority | (Michaux) Vahl: Enum. Pl. 2: 234. (1805) | (Britton) H. Pfeiffer: Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 49: 82. (1940) |
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