Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora corniculata
Harvey's beaksedge
shortbristle horned beaksedge
erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.
stiffly erect, leafy, triangular, multiribbed;
principal leaves overtopped by culm;
blades flat, 3–20 mm wide, apex attenuate, trigonous.
spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base;
blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate.
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.
terminal and axillary, diffuse clusters of corymbs, fascicles turbinate to hemispheric;
bracts often overtopping clusters.
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.
few to several per cluster, brown or reddish brown, lanceoloid, 10–15 mm, apex narrowly acute;
fertile scales broadly lanceolate, (7.5–)10–13(–14) mm, apex acute, midrib shortexcurrent or not.
perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
perianth bristles 5–6, longest reaching to or slightly beyond fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
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, 13–20(–25) mm;
body oblongellipsoid, compressed, 4–5(–6) × 2–3 mm, base narrowed, short, margins thickened, often crimped, surfaces concave, striate, minutely cancellate or pebbled;
tubercle subulate, 2-grooved, 10–15(–20) mm, scabridulous.
= 18.
Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora corniculata
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Specimens of Rhyncospora corniculata with base of the tubercle fully as wide as the fruit and with fruit bodies at the lower length range were treated by M. L. Fernald as R. corniculata var. interior Fernald.
The percent of fruit with crimped margins in Rhynchospora corniculata increases westward in the Gulf coastal plain; toward Mexico it is sympatric with R. indianolensis and R. gigantea, which also have crimped fruit.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Fruit body broadly obovoid to suborbicular, medially with mostly isodiametric tiny alveoli or pits, or minutely raised reticulate in an almost honeycomb pattern of alveolae, or simply evenly finely cancellate; ultimate spikelet complexes with clusters on stiffish branchlets, usually dense and exceeded at least by subulate tips of subtending leafy bract and bractlets. | var. harveyi |
1. Fruit body obovoid, lenticular, medially with oblong or roundish pitlike alveoli, intervals between contiguous transverse rows forming shallow, broad, pale, smooth ridges; ultimate spikelet clusters more sparse, on more slender, lax, erect to excurved branches and exceeding subtending bracts and bractlets. | var. culixa |
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