Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora brachychaeta |
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Harvey's beaksedge |
West Indian beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 70–110 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 20–50 cm; rhizomes absent. | ||||
Culms | erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender. |
erect to excurved, lax, filiform, leafy, ± terete. |
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Leaves | spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base; blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate. |
exceeded by culm, ascending; blades filiform, ± terete, margins strongly involute, apex trigonous, sulcate, tapering. |
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Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–4, dense to open, mostly irregularly turbinate; peduncles ascending, branches spreading to erect, ultimate branches with many spikelets; leafy bracts setaceoustipped, usually exceeding all clusters, or at least all but the distal. |
spikelet clusters mostly 2–3, sparse to dense, oblong to broadly or narrowly turbinate; leafy bracts setaceous, exceeding clusters. |
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Spikelets | light redbrown or brown, broadly ellipsoid to lanceoloid, 3–4 mm, apex acute to acuminate; fertile scales ovate to obovate or suborbiculate, 2–3.5 mm apex acute to rounded or emarginate, midrib included or exserted as mucro. |
pale redbrown, lanceoloid, 3–3.5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales mostly elliptic, 2–2.5 mm, apex acute, sometimes apiculate. |
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Flowers | perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. |
bristles mere nubs or 1–2, to 0.3 mm. |
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Fruits | mostly 1 per spikelet, 2–2.5 mm, body dark brown, obovoid to subglobose, tumid or lenticular, 1.5–1.7 mm, transversely finely rugose to nearly level, intervals with very small, pitlike alveoli. |
mostly 2 per spikelet, 1.5–1.6 mm; body redbrown with pale center, lenticular, broadly obovoid to orbicular, margins pale, narrow, flowing to tubercle; surfaces smoothish, or faintly cancellate; tubercle flattened, triangularsubulate, 0.3–0.5 mm. |
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Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora brachychaeta |
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Phenology | Fruiting late spring–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Moist sandy peaty substrates in savannas or savanna bog transition, ditches, and moist, disturbed areas | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; KS; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; se United States; Midwestern |
AL; FL; MS; Central America; West Indies |
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Rhynchospora brachychaeta is quite possibly adventive; most of its localities in the flora are in disturbed areas near the coast. It is similar to the widespread native R. chapmanii, from which it is distinguished by its more numerous spikelet clusters, the darker spikelets, the achene faces brown with pale centers (rather than pale with brown ends), and the relatively more developed perianth. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 231. | FNA vol. 23, p. 235. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum brachychaetum, R. blauneri, R. chapmanii, R. pallida, R. pallida | |||||
Name authority | W. Boott: Bot. Gaz. 9: 85. (1884) | C. Wright: Anales Real Acad. Ci. Méd. Fís. Nat. Habana 8: 85. (1873) | ||||
Web links |