Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora filifolia
Harvey's beaksedge
threadleaf beaksedge
erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.
erect or excurved, mostly filiform, leafy proximal to midculm, obtuse-angled to subterete, wiry.
spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base;
blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate.
overtopped by culm;
blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, 1–2 mm wide, distally tapering-triquetrous.
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 2–3(–4), distant, narrowly turbinate to hemispheric, mostly shorter than subtending setaceous bract.
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.
red-brown, lanceoloid, 2.5–3(–4) mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scale elliptic, 2–2.5 mm, acute, midrib excurrent as cusp or aristula.
perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
bristles 6, reaching tubercle tip or beyond, antrorsely barbellate, base setose.
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.
2–4 per spikelet, 1.5–1.7 mm, on setose pedicellar joint 0.2 mm, body with faces red-brown with pale glassy center, decurrent tubercle base;
surfaces smooth;
turbercle concavely triangular, 0.4–0.6 mm, setulose-ciliate.
Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora filifolia
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
On the acidic, sphagnous substrates shaded by Taxodium ascendens, Nyssa biflora, and Ilex myrtifolia stands in western Florida and southern Alabama, culms of Rhynchospora filifolia reach their greatest length and are lax, leaning on other vegetation, and produce increasingly more distant clusters of spikelets that are of a paler color than is usual for the species. In fact, R. filifolia presents the greatest morphologic spectrum for its complex of species, a complex best held together by the uniformity of its fruits.
(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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