Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora gracilenta |
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Harvey's beaksedge |
slender beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 70–110 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose or solitary, 10–100 cm; rhizomes absent. | ||||
Culms | erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender. |
mostly lax, ascending to leaningexcurved, leafy, linear to filiform, 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. |
shorter than culm; blades ascending, filiform to narrowly linear, proximally flat, 0.5–1.5(–2.5) mm wide, margins distally strongly involute, apex trigonous, 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 1–3(–4), proximalmost distant, dense to sparse, narrowly turbinate to hemispheric; peduncles and branches ascending; leafy bracts linearsetaceous, mostly overtopping 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. |
redbrown, ovoid to lanceoloid, (3.5–)4–5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales ovate, 3–4.5 mm, apex acute, mucronate to awnedcuspidate. |
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Flowers | perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. |
bristles 6, mostly reaching tip of tubercle or beyond, 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. |
1–3 per spikelet, (2.5–)3–3.5(–4.1) mm; body dark brown with small pale center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid to suborbicular, 1.3–2.1 × 1.3–1.5 mm, smooth, margins narrow, flowing into tubercle; tubercle triangular-subulate, compressed, mostly 1.5–2 mm. |
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Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora gracilenta |
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Phenology | Fruiting late spring–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Moist to wet sandy peaty substrates in ditches, bogs, seeps, wet savannas, barrens, and flatwoods | |||||
Elevation | 0–400 m (0–1300 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; KS; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; se United States; Midwestern |
AL; AR; DE; FL; GA; LA; MD; MS; NC; NJ; OK; PA; SC; TN; TX; VA; Central America; West Indies (Cuba)
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Through the southern coastal plain are widerleaved examples of Rhynchospora gracilenta that are sparingly cespitose to solitary-stemmed, often with but a single terminal inflorescence with dense clusters of spikelets (var. diversifolia). That would be a tenable designation were it not for the large numbers of populations with intermediate habit. (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. 236. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum gracilentum, R. drummondiana, R. gracilenta var. diversifolia, R. trichophylla | |||||
Name authority | W. Boott: Bot. Gaz. 9: 85. (1884) | A. Gray: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 216. (1835) | ||||
Web links |