Rhynchospora latifolia
Rhynchospora elliottii
sandswamp whitetop
Elliott's beaksedge
arching or erect, leafy-based, distally wandlike, terete, multiribbed.
erect with arching tops, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender.
ascending to spreading, overtopped by scape;
blades linear, proximally flat, 2.5–5 mm wide, apex subulate, trigonous.
overtopped by inflorescence;
blades linear, proximally flat, 3–5 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate, tapering.
terminal, headlike clusters of spikelets, clusters dense, leafy-involucrate;
involucral bracts several, spreading to downcurved, longest 6–13 cm × 5–10 mm, mostly white to midbract, then green, abruptly narrowly linear.
spikelet clusters mostly 4–6, various in shape and crowding, narrowly to broadly turbinate;
peduncles erect, branches slender, ascending; leafy bracts exceeding all but most distal clusters.
white, ovoid, 5–7 mm;
fertile scales boatshaped, sharply curved-keeled, 5 mm, apex acute.
redbrown, broadly ellipsoid, (1.5–)2–3(–3.5) mm, apex acute;
fertile scales broadly ovate, 2–3 mm, midrib excurrent as apiculus or awn.
perianth absent.
perianth bristles 6, mostly spreading, usually exceeding tubercle, antrorsely barbellate.
several per spikelet, 1.5–2 mm;
body yellowish to deep brown, tumidly lenticular, broadly obovoid to orbicular or oblate, 1.5 mm, widest at or toward midbody, margins flowing to tubercle;
surfaces with many fine rows of vertical shallow lattices, their contiguous ends making transverse rows of papillae;
tubercle crescent-based, depressed-triangular, 0.5 mm, apex acute.
2–3(–4) per spikelet, 1.5(–1.7) mm;
body pale brown to brown, strongly flattened, obovoidorbicular, 1–1.2 × 0.8–1.1;
surfaces transversely wavyrugose, intervals vertically striate with very narrowly rectangular alveolae;
tubercle flat, triangular or concavely triangular, 0.3–0.5(–0.7) mm.
= 12.
Rhynchospora latifolia
Rhynchospora elliottii
A specimen collected near Tullahoma, Tennessee, reported as Dichromena latifolia (A. Gattinger 1901), was later destroyed by fire. I did not see the specimen, nor was a description of it published. Because extant populations of the similar Rhynchospora colorata are just over the border in Alabama, that species is likely to have been the one found by Gattinger.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Rhynchospora elliottii is most likely to be confused in the field with its frequent associates R. microcarpa and R. perplexa. Most of the time it can be distinguished from both by its taller, coarser, broader-leaved habit and by its distinctly redder spikelets. Inspection of the fruit reveals the spreading character of the perianth bristles, these usually a length level with the tubercle tip or longer and giving the whole structure the appearance of an unengorged tick.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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