Rhynchospora harperi |
Rhynchospora miliacea |
|
---|---|---|
Harper's beaksedge |
millet beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, solitary or cespitose, 50–70 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, to 150 cm; rhizomes stoloniferous, slender. |
Culms | erect to excurved, leafybased, narrowly linear, ± terete. |
lax, leafy, wandlike, ± terete to obscurely angled, slender. |
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. |
ascending, exceeded by culms; blades flat, 4–7(–10) mm wide, apex trigonous, shortacuminate, tapering. |
Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–3, laterals 0–2, all turbinate to hemispheric, terminal internode usually excurved; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping inflorescence. |
spikelet clusters 4–6 or more, equidistant along culm on ascending peduncles, branches capillary, divaricate, clusters loose, diffuse, rounded. |
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. |
light brown, ellipsoid to lanceoloid or ovoid, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales ovate, (1.5–)2–3 mm, apex rounded or acute, midrib forming apiculus. |
Flowers | bristles 6, reaching from mid tubercle to beyond tip. |
perianth bristles 6, longest exceeding tubercle, antrorsely 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. |
2–several per spikelet, 1.3–1.5 mm; body pale brown, broadly obovoid, tumidly biconvex, 1.1–1.2 × 1–1.1 mm; surfaces transversely sharply wavyrugulose, intervals with vertical, rectangular, shallow alveolae; tubercle depressedconic, slightly compressed, 0.2–0.3(–0.4) mm, edges setulose. |
Rhynchospora harperi |
Rhynchospora miliacea |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of bogs, stream banks, edges of pineland savanna ponds, Hypericum ponds | Sandy alluvium of swamp forests and gallery forests, low clearings forests |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 0–400 m (0–1300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; DE; FL; GA; MD; MS; NC; SC; Central America (Belize)
|
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; 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.) |
The ultimate branches in Rhynchospora miliacea typically terminate in only one or two spikelets, the scales of which fall quickly, and the exposed fruits look like short miniature strings of beads. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 233. | FNA vol. 23, p. 226. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | R. fascicularis var. harperi, R. leptorhyncha | Schoenus miliaceus, Phaeocephalum miliaceum, R. sparsa, Schoenus sparsus |
Name authority | Small: Man. S.E. Fl., 182, 1503. (1933) | (Lamarck) A. Gray: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 198. (1835) |
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