Rhynchospora harperi |
Rhynchospora breviseta |
|
---|---|---|
Harper's beaksedge |
|
|
Habit | Plants perennial, solitary or cespitose, 50–70 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, knottybased, 20–40 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect to excurved, leafybased, narrowly linear, ± terete. |
leafy at base, filiform, wiry. |
Leaves | shorter than culm; blades ascending, narrowly linear, proximally flat or margins slightly involute, 0.5–1(–2) mm wide, distally canaliculate, apex trigonous, tapering, subulate. |
blades filiform, nearly reaching inflorescence tip or much shorter, to 0.3 mm thick, apex tapering. |
Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–3, laterals 0–2, all turbinate to hemispheric, terminal internode usually excurved; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping inflorescence. |
spikelet clusters mostly 2–6, simple or reduced to 1 spikelet, often with 2 capillary branches, one divaricate or reflexed, 1 ascending; leafy bracts single per cluster, filiform, setaceous, with clusters appearing lateral to bracts. |
Spikelets | redbrown, lanceoloid, 5–7 mm, apex acute; fertile scales lanceolate, (2.5–)4–5 mm, apex acute to acuminate; midrib paralleled by several indistinct ribs, excurrent as short awns. |
pale redbrown, ellipsoidlanceoloid, 5–6(–8) mm, apex acute to acuminate; fertile scales narrowly ovate, 3–5(–6) mm, apex acute, midrib included or shortexcurrent. |
Flowers | bristles 6, reaching from mid tubercle to beyond tip. |
perianth bristles 6, not reaching past fruit midbody, stubby, plumose to near tip. |
Fruits | 3(–4) per spikelet, 2.1–2.5 mm; stipe and receptacle 0.2–0.3 mm, sparsely setose and setulose; body glossy, brown with pale center, obovoid-lenticular, 1.1–1.5 × 1–1.1 mm, surfaces finely longitudinally lined, variably low papillatecancellate, also often transversely with wavy lines of dark dots; tubercle flattened, triangular-subulate, (0.8–)0.9–1(–1.1) mm, setulose-ciliate. |
3–8 per spikelet, 2–2.5 mm; body light brown to brown, ellipsoid-obovoid, tumidly lenticular, 1.5–2 × 1.6–1.7 mm; surfaces faintly, interruptedly crossrugulose, apically indented under tubercle; tubercle lowconic, 0.5 mm, base flaring, circular. |
Rhynchospora harperi |
Rhynchospora breviseta |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting spring–summer. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of bogs, stream banks, edges of pineland savanna ponds, Hypericum ponds | Moist to wet sands or peats of bogs, depressions in savannas, open pinelands, pond shores |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; DE; FL; GA; MD; MS; NC; SC; Central America (Belize)
|
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; VA; West Indies |
Discussion | Rhynchospora harperi is most abundant in a very special habitat referred to here as the “Hypericum pond.” These are typically shallow ponds in pine savannas, frequently ringed by stands of Nyssa, Taxodium, Ilex, and Cyrilla, but most of the pond itself is dominated by one or more myriandrous shrubby Hypericum species. Here R. harperi is distinguished from other species by the often abrupt bend of its ultimate internode. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Rhynchospora breviseta is sympatric with R. oligantha over much of its range; intergrades have not been seen. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 233. | FNA vol. 23. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | R. fascicularis var. harperi, R. leptorhyncha | R. oligantha var. breviseta |
Name authority | Small: Man. S.E. Fl., 182, 1503. (1933) | (Gale) Channell: Rhodora 58: 336. (1956) |
Web links |