Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora mixta |
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Harvey's beaksedge |
mingled beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 70–110 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 80–100 cm; rhizomes stoloniferous, often elongate, slender, to 1 dm or more. | ||||
Culms | erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender. |
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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. |
exceeded by culm; blades lax, linear, proximally flat, 3–5 mm wide, apex abruptly narrowed, trigonous, subulate. |
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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 4–6, mostly widely spaced; peduncles erect or ascending, slender; branches capillary, divaricate, or widely spreading, to small clusters of 1–few spikelets; leafy bracts mostly exceeding 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. |
lanceovoid, 3–4(–6) mm, apex acute to acuminate; fertile scales elliptic, 2.5 mm, apex acute, midrib forming mucro or awn. |
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Flowers | perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. |
perianth bristles 6, overtopping tubercle, 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. |
mostly 2–4(–several) per spikelet, (1.5–)1.8–2(–2.1); body greenish or pale brown, broadly ellipsoid to narrowly obovoid, lenticular, 1.2–1.5 × 1–1.2 mm; surfaces transversely finely wavy-rugulose, intervals vertically striatealveolate, or alveolae isodiametric; tubercle flat, triangular-subulate, 0.5–0.6(–0.8) mm. |
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Rhynchospora harveyi |
Rhynchospora mixta |
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Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | |||||
Habitat | Sandy silts of swamp forests and environs | |||||
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AR; FL; GA; KS; LA; MO; MS; NC; OK; SC; TN; TX; VA; se United States; Midwestern |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Some extremes of Rhynchospora caduca with more diffuse inflorescences are mistaken for R. mixta, particularly those in which ultimate inflorescence branches lead to solitary spikelets. In those rare instances one should find a somewhat larger spikelet and a broader fruit than is typical for R. mixta. (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. 224. | ||||
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum proliferum, R. prolifera | |||||
Name authority | W. Boott: Bot. Gaz. 9: 85. (1884) | Britton: in J. K. Small, Fl. S.E. U.S., 197, 1328. (1903) | ||||
Web links |