Rhynchospora fernaldii |
Rhynchospora curtissii |
|
---|---|---|
Fernald's beaksedge |
Curtiss' beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 15–50 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 10–30 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect or ascending, slender, leafy proximal to middle, somewhat stiff. |
lax, erect to excurved, leafy toward base, filiform. |
Leaves | overtopped by culm; blades ascending, ± filiform, proximally flat or slightly concave, to 1 mm wide, apex narrowing, trigonous, abruptly blunt. |
overtopped by scape; blades filiform, distally flattened, channeled, tapering, to 1 mm wide, margins strongly involute, apex blunt. |
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 1–3, laterals widely spaced, all narrowly turbinate, ellipsoid, or ovoid; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping proximal clusters, often overtopped by terminal ones. |
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, redbrown, lanciform, mostly 4.5–5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales lanceolate, (3–)4–4.5 mm, apex acute, apiculate. |
Flowers | bristles 6, some reaching to apex of fruit body. |
perianth absent. |
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. |
2–3(–5) per spikelet; stipe and receptacle 0.1–0.2(–0.3) mm, setose; body brown with pale glassy center, narrowly obovoidellipsoid, lenticular, 1.2–1.5 mm, margins narrow, flowing to tubercle; surfaces very finely lined longitudinally, transversely with wavy lines of tiny pits; tubercle narrowly triangular or slightly concavesided, flattened, 0.7–1.2(–1.5) mm. |
Rhynchospora fernaldii |
Rhynchospora curtissii |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of low clearings in flatwoods, savannas, and bog edges | Sands and peats of bogs, pineland pond shores, seeps, and low moist savannas |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; MS |
AL; FL; MS |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 235. | FNA vol. 23, p. 234. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | R. fascicularis var. fernaldii | Phaeocephalum curtissii, R. filifolia var. ellipsoidea |
Name authority | Gale: Rhodora 46: 182, plate 825, figs. 3A, B. (1944) | Britton: in J. K. Small, Fl. S.E. U.S., 195, 1327. (1903) |
Web links |