Rhynchospora harperi |
Rhynchospora macra |
|
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Harper's beaksedge |
large beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, solitary or cespitose, 50–70 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 40–80 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect to excurved, leafybased, narrowly linear, ± terete. |
erect, trigonous, multiribbed, rather stiff. |
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. |
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Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–3, laterals 0–2, all turbinate to hemispheric, terminal internode usually excurved; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping inflorescence. |
spikelet clusters 1–3, turbinate to hemispheric, 1.5–3 cm wide; subtending leafy bracts mostly exceeded by distal compound. |
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 brown to nearly white, fusiform, 4–5(–7) mm, apex narrowly acute; fertile scales elliptic, 3.5–4 mm, apex narrowly acute, midrib excurrent as mucro. |
Flowers | bristles 6, reaching from mid tubercle to beyond tip. |
perianth bristles (15–)18–20, reaching tubercle tip, retrorsely barbellate. |
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. |
1 per spikelet, 2.5–3.2 mm; body brown with pale center, obovoid distal to short stipe, lenticular, 1.7–2.2 × 0.8–1.5, margins narrow, wirelike, flowing into tubercle edges; tubercle flat, narrowly triangular-subulate, 0.8–1 mm. |
Principal | leaves overtopped by culm; blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, (1.5–)2–3.5 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous. |
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Rhynchospora harperi |
Rhynchospora macra |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting late summer–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of bogs, stream banks, edges of pineland savanna ponds, Hypericum ponds | Sands and sandy peats of savanna bogs and seeps, pinelands |
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)
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AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Central America (Nicaragua) |
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.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 233. | FNA vol. 23, p. 214. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | R. fascicularis var. harperi, R. leptorhyncha | R. alba var. macra, Phaeocephalum album var. macrum, Triodon albus var. macer |
Name authority | Small: Man. S.E. Fl., 182, 1503. (1933) | (C. B. Clarke ex Britton) Small: Man. S.E. Fl., 180. (1933) |
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