Rhynchospora odorata |
Rhynchospora thornei |
|
---|---|---|
fragrant beaksedge |
Thorne's beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 100–180 cm; rhizomes often present, short, scaly. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 10–20 cm; rhizomes slender, short. |
Culms | erect to ascending, leafy, slender, angular. |
lax, filiform, leafy. |
Leaves | exceeded by culm; blades linear, proximally flat, 3–6 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous, subulate. |
spreading to ascending, exceeding or exceeded by culm; blades 0.2–0.3 mm wide, margins strongly involute or channeled, apex trigonous, tapering, setaceous. |
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. |
cluster of cymes 1–2, widely spaced, turbinate, sparse; branches few; foliaceous bracts setaceous, longer than cymes. |
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. |
brown, lanceovoid to fusiform, 2.5–3 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, 1.5 mm, apex acute, midrib shortexcurrent. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 6, reaching past tubercle, antrorsely barbellate. |
perianth absent. |
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. |
0.9–1 mm; body lustrous pale brown, ellipsoidlenticular, 0.8–0.9 × 0.5–0.6 mm, margins narrow, wirelike; surfaces minutely reticulate; bristles 4–6, the longest from shorter than fruit midbody to fully as long, rarely reaching tubercle tip, minutely antrorsely barbellate; tubercle shortconic, to 0.15 mm. |
Rhynchospora odorata |
Rhynchospora thornei |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall or all year (south). | Fruiting late spring summer. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of swamps, marshes, interdunal swales, low meadows, savannas | Fluctuating shores of limesink ponds, seeps over calcareous rock |
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; NC; SC; West Indies (Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica)
|
AL; FL; GA; NC |
Discussion | Of conservation concern. Rhynchospora thornei, discovered by Robert Thorne from margins of a limesink pond in southwestern Georgia, has been extirpated at that site. Now the taxon is known from several Alabama and Florida locations and was recently found in eastern North Carolina by R. J. LeBlond. Had S. Gale been sent material of Rhynchospora thornei at the time she was doing her excellent revision, she probably would have treated it as part of her series Rariflorae. Yet without its perianth bristles, R. thornei would be nearly identical to R. divergens and very similar to R. pusilla, both of which belong in subg. Psilocarya. Therefore, it forms an interesting link between subg. Rhynchospora (Eurhynchospora sensu Gale) and subg. Psilocarya. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 223. | FNA vol. 23, p. 221. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum stipitatum, R. stipitata | |
Name authority | C. Wright ex Grisebach: Cat. Pl. Cub., 242. (1866) | Kral: Sida 7: 42, fig. 1. (1977) |
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