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pale beaksedge

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

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
from FNA
DE; MD; NC; NJ; NY; SC; VA
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 23, p. 238.
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. odorata, R. oligantha, 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 pallidum, R. curtisii
Name authority M. A. Curtis: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2: 7: 409. (1849)
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