Rhynchospora pallida |
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pale beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 40–100 cm, base bulbous; rhizomes stoloniferous, short, wiry. |
Culms | erect or excurved, linear, leafy, trigonous, slender. |
Leaves | slightly to much exceeded by culm; blades ascending, narrowly linear, proximally flat, 1–3 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering gradually, setaceous. |
Inflorescences | terminal; spikelet single, terminal cluster of spikelets crowded, hemispheric, 2.5 cm wide; leafy bracts linearsetaceous, much exceeding cluster. |
Spikelets | whitish to tan, narrowly lanceoloid, (3.5–)4–5.5 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales lanceolate, 3.5–4(–4.5) mm, apex narrowly acute, minutely awned or apiculate. |
Flowers | bristles vestigial or obsolete. |
Fruits | 1 per spikelet, (1.9–)2–2.3 mm; body brown with pale center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid, 1.5–2 × 1.5 mm, margins flowing to tubercle; surfaces longitudinally finely striate; tubercle depressedtriangular, 0.2–0.3(–0.4) mm. |
Rhynchospora pallida |
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Phenology | Fruiting late spring–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of clearings in pine flatwoods, barrens, and savannas |
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
DE; MD; NC; NJ; NY; SC; VA |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 238. |
Parent taxa | |
Sibling taxa | |
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum pallidum, R. curtisii |
Name authority | M. A. Curtis: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2: 7: 409. (1849) |
Web links |