Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora plumosa
Harvey's beaksedge
plumed beaksedge
erect to excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.
erect or excurved, filiform to linear.
spreading to ascending, shorter than culm, crowded toward culm base;
blades linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, gradually involute, apically trigonous, subulate.
erect or excurved, shorter than scape;
blades filiform to linear, to 1.5 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, tapering.
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–several, dense or sparse, when several, either widely spaced or close together, if widely spaced then ovoid to hemispheric, if close together then lobed ellipse or cylinder; leafy bracts filiform, setaceous, overtopping each cluster.
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 to deep brown, broadly fusiform to ovoid, (2.5–)3.5–4 mm, apex acute to acuminate;
fertile scale broadly ovate, strongly convex, (1.5–)2–3 mm, apex acuminate to mucronate, midrib excurrent or not.
perianth bristles mostly 6, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate.
perianth bristles 6, plumose, reaching at least to fruit midbody, often to tubercle 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, (1.5–)2–2.5 mm;
body redbrown or brown, tumidly obovoid or ellipsoid, sometimes obscurely lenticular, (1.2–)1.3–1.8(–2) × 1–1.5 mm;
surfaces interruptedly crossrugulose;
tubercle narrowly to broadly conic, mostly 0.3–0.5 mm, base flaring, round or indistinctly 2lobed.
Rhynchospora harveyi
Rhynchospora plumosa
Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Particularly in Gulf Coastal Plain savannas, Rhynchospora plumosa appears to have two distinct morphs: one very densely cespitose with filiform leaves, filiform, arching culms, and spikelets in short, broad, dark brown clusters, and the other morph taller, stiffer, with broader leaves and culms, and longer, sharper, paler spikelets in narrow compounds of clusters. After many attempts to do what others have—namely to create two distinct species—I have had to retrench, because so many intergrades occur.
(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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