Rhynchospora fernaldii |
Rhynchospora capillacea |
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Fernald's beaksedge |
brown beak-rush, horned beakrush, needle beaksedge, rhynchospore capillaire, slender beakrush |
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Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 15–50 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 10–40 cm, wiry; rhizomes stoloniferous, slender, to 1.5 mm thick. |
Culms | erect or ascending, slender, leafy proximal to middle, somewhat stiff. |
erect or curved, leafy, filiform, angularly fewribbed. |
Leaves | overtopped by culm; blades ascending, ± filiform, proximally flat or slightly concave, to 1 mm wide, apex narrowing, trigonous, abruptly blunt. |
ascending-excurved, overtopped by culm; blades filiform, involute, apex setaceous. |
Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–2, if 2 then close together, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric or even globose; primary leafy bract setaceous, exceeding clusters. |
spikelet clusters 1–2(–3), often sparse, ellipsoid or narrowly turbinate, less than 1 cm wide; subtending foliaceous bracts exceeding compounds. |
Spikelets | redbrown, ovoid, 2–2.5(–4) mm, apex acute; fertile scales broadly ovate, 1.5–1.9(–2) mm, apex acute to acuminate, midrib excurrent as awn to 0.5 mm. |
erect or ascending, pale redbrown to brown, fusiform, 6–7 mm; fertile scales elliptic, 4 mm, apex rounded or acute, midrib shortexcurrent or not. |
Flowers | bristles 6, some reaching to apex of fruit body. |
perianth bristles 6, overtopping tubercle base, mostly retrorsely barbellate, sometimes smooth [forma laeviseta (E. |
Fruits | 2–3 per spikelet, 1–1.2(–1.4) mm; body dull dark brown with paler brown center, lenticular, broadly obovoid to broadly ellipsoid, 1 × 0.8 mm, margins narrow, flowing to tubercle; tubercle nearly equilaterally triangular, 0.2–0.3 mm. |
1–4(–5) per spikelet, 2.5–3 mm; body pale brown, slender stipitate, ellipsoid, lenticular, 1.5–2 × 0.8–1 mm; surfaces longitudinally minutely striate, obscurely transversely lowrugose, dotted; tubercle narrowly triangularsubulate, flattened, 0.8–1.7 mm. |
j | . |
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Hill | ) Fernald]. |
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Rhynchospora fernaldii |
Rhynchospora capillacea |
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Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of low clearings in flatwoods, savannas, and bog edges | Moist to wet calcareous fens, seeps over limestones or calcareous rock, marsh meadows |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 0–1000 m (0–3300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; MS |
AL; AR; CT; IA; IL; IN; MA; ME; MI; MN; MO; ND; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SD; TN; TX; VA; VT; WI; AB; MB; NB; NL; ON; QC; SK
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Discussion | The two beakrushes most commonly occurring in fens are Rhynchospora capillacea and R. capitellata. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 235. | FNA vol. 23, p. 213. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | R. fascicularis var. fernaldii | Phaeocephalum capillaceum, R. setacea, Triodon capillaceus |
Name authority | Gale: Rhodora 46: 182, plate 825, figs. 3A, B. (1944) | Torrey: Fl. N. Middle United States 1: 55. (1823) |
Web links |