Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora megaplumosa
Harvey's beaksedge
manatee beaksedge
erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.
erect to arching-ascending, leafy, wand-like.
spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base;
blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate.
mostly basal, few and increasingly distant upculm, shorter than scape;
blades narrowly linear, concave proximally, (1–)2–3 mm wide, tapering and increasingly involute-sulcate proximally, margins scabrid, apex triquetrous, tip narrow but blunt.
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.
clusters 1(–2), if 2 then close together, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric;
primary leafy bracts linear, stiff, exceeding 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 brown, narrowly lanceoloid, 8–10 mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scales lanceolate, convex, (6–)7–8 mm, apex narrowly acute, low midrib short-excurrent or not.
perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
perianth bristles 6, excurved, plumose from base to midbristle, 5–7.5 mm, antrorsely barbellate to tip.
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, 2.3–2.6 × 1.1–1.2 mm;
body brown, short-stipitate, tumidly obovoid, subterete, 1.8–2 mm, margin low, broad;
surfaces interruptedly transversely wavy-rugulose;
tubercle broadly and concavely conic, 0.5–0.7 mm high, base shallowly 2-lobed, discoid, abruptly narrowed to blunt tip.
Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora megaplumosa
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Of conservation concern.
Rhynchospora megaplumosa is local in central peninsular Florida. It often shares habitat with R. pineticola, and it is taxonomically nearest it in series Plumosae. Distinctive are the longer, paler, narrower spikelets, the longer fertile scales, and perianth bristles of R. megaplumosa. In fact, the perianth bristles of R. megaplumosa are the longest known in the series. While the bristles of all other Plumosae are erect, hugging the achene body, those of R. megaplumosa bend outward so strongly that they push away subtending scales; bristles are conspicuously exposed at maturity.
(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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