Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora cephalantha |
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Harvey's beaksedge |
bunched beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 70–110 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 40–100(–150) cm; rhizomes absent. | ||||
Culms | erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender. |
arching, leafy, obscurely and convexly trigonous, multi-ribbed, slender to stoutish. |
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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. |
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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 3–several, widely spaced, often equidistant, mostly hemispheric to globose, occasionally lobed, 1–2 cm thick; bracteal leaves much exceeding subtended inflorescence. |
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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. |
dark red-brown to dark brown, lanceellipsoid to ellipsoid, 4–5(–6) mm, apex acute; fertile scales elliptic, 3–3.5(–4.5) mm, apex acute, midribs 3, laterals indistinct. |
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Flowers | perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. |
perianth bristles 6, reaching tubercle tip, retrorsely (rarely antrorsely) barbellate. |
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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. |
1(–2) per spikelet, 3.5–4(–4.2) mm; body brown with pale center, obovoid distal to stipe, lenticular, 2–2.3 × 1–1.5(–2) mm; tubercle triangular-subulate, (1–)1.5–2 mm, at least 0.5 mm wide at base. |
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Principal | leaves overtopped by culm; blades linear, flat proximally, 1.5–3 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous. |
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Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora cephalantha |
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Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy silts, sands, and peats of shores, boggy streams, seeps, savannas, and savanna bogs | |||||
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; KS; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; se United States; Midwestern |
AL; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; NY; SC; TX; VA
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
North American plants referred to Rhynchospora axillaris (Lamarck) Britton [Phaeocephala axillare (Lamarck) House by N. L. Britton and A. Brown (1913) and J. K. Small (1933)] are actually R. cephalantha. A photograph of the type specimen of Schoenus axillaris Lamarck (from P) reveals what appears to be an immature top of S. glomeratus [R. glomerata (Linnaeus) Vahl]. (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. 212. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | R. cephalantha var. attenuata, R. cephalantha var. pleiocephala | |||||
Name authority | W. Boott: Bot. Gaz. 9: 85. (1884) | A. Gray: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 218. (1835) | ||||
Web links |