The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

fragrant beaksedge

Habit Plants perennial, cespitose, 100–180 cm; rhizomes often present, short, scaly.
Culms

erect to ascending, leafy, slender, angular.

Leaves

exceeded by culm;

blades linear, proximally flat, 3–6 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous, subulate.

Inflorescences

of terminal and axillary clusters, 3–5, proximalmost widely spaced, turbinate or lobed, fascicles dense, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding all but proximalmost clusters.

Spikelets

rich redbrown, ovoid, (4–)5–6(–7) mm, apex acuminate;

fertile scales ovate, (3.5–)4–5 mm, apex acuminate, midrib short or longexcurrent.

Flowers

perianth bristles 6, reaching past tubercle, antrorsely barbellate.

Fruits

mostly 3–4(–7) per spikelet, 3 mm with pedicellar joint and tubercle;

body pale yellowbrown, obovoidlenticular, 1.4–1.7 × 1.4 × 1.5;

surfaces transversely finely wavyrugulose, intervals vertically rectangularalveolate;

pedicellar joint 0.3–0.6 mm;

tubercle compressed, triangularacuminate, 0.5–0.6 (–1) mm, margin setulose.

Rhynchospora odorata

Phenology Fruiting summer–fall or all year (south).
Habitat Sands and peats of swamps, marshes, interdunal swales, low meadows, savannas
Elevation 0–200 m (0–700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; NC; SC; West Indies (Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 23, p. 223.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora
Sibling taxa
R. alba, R. baldwinii, R. brachychaeta, R. breviseta, R. caduca, R. californica, R. capillacea, R. capitellata, R. careyana, R. cephalantha, R. chalarocephala, R. chapmanii, R. ciliaris, R. colorata, R. compressa, R. corniculata, R. crinipes, R. curtissii, R. debilis, R. decurrens, R. divergens, R. elliottii, R. eximia, R. fascicularis, R. fernaldii, R. filifolia, R. floridensis, R. fusca, R. globularis, R. glomerata, R. gracilenta, R. grayi, R. harperi, R. harveyi, R. indianolensis, R. inexpansa, R. inundata, R. knieskernii, R. kunthii, R. latifolia, R. macra, R. macrostachya, R. megalocarpa, R. megaplumosa, R. microcarpa, R. microcephala, R. miliacea, R. mixta, R. nitens, R. nivea, R. oligantha, R. pallida, R. perplexa, R. pineticola, R. pleiantha, R. plumosa, R. punctata, R. pusilla, R. rariflora, R. recognita, R. scirpoides, R. solitaria, R. stenophylla, R. thornei, R. torreyana, R. tracyi, R. wrightiana
Synonyms Phaeocephalum stipitatum, R. stipitata
Name authority C. Wright ex Grisebach: Cat. Pl. Cub., 242. (1866)
Web links