Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora grayi
Harvey's beaksedge
Gray's beaksedge
erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.
erect or excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender, firm.
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 culms;
blades spreading to ascending, linear, proximally flat, 2–4 mm wide, apex involute, then 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.
spikelet clusters 1–4, loose to dense, broadly turbinate, lobed or hemispheric;
peduncles and branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding proximal, sometimes distal, 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.
light redbrown, ellipsoid or narrowly ovoid, 4–5 mm, apex acute to acuminate;
fertile scales broadly ovate, 3.5–4.5 mm, apex acute or acuminate, apiculate.
perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
perianth bristles mostly 6, reaching from fruit midbody to tubercle tip or beyond, 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, 2.5–3 mm;
body dark brown, broadly, tumidly obovoid, 2–2.5 × 2–2.5 mm, apically buttressed to tubercle;
surfaces finely transversely rugulose or nearly level, with fine transverse rows of pits or low papillae, often appearing nearly smooth;
tubercle lowconic, 0.4–0.6 mm, apiculate.
Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora grayi
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of all North American species of Rhynchospora, R. grayi appears best adapted to the xeric conditions found in the coarser sands of the longleaf pine-scrub oak–dominated yellow sandhills. Interestingly, it seems seldom to mix with its closest relative, R. megalocarpa, which is more often found in white sandhills.
(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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