Rhynchospora pineticola
Rhynchospora chalarocephala
pine barren beaksedge
loosehead beaksedge
erect to ascending, leafy, stiff.
erect to ascending-arching, slender, nearly terete, multiribbed.
shorter than scape;
blades narrowly linear, (1–)2–3 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, tapering.
clusters 1–2, if 2 then close together, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric or lobedglobose;
primary leafy bract linear, stiff, exceeding clusters.
spikelet clusters 3–7, widely spaced, clusters loosely turbinate to hemispheric, to 1.3 cm wide.
light to dark redbrown, lanceovoid, 3.5–6 mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scales ovate, convex, 3–3.5(–4) mm, apex acuminate, low midrib excurrent or not.
brown to pale red-brown, lance-fusiform, 3–5.5 mm;
fertile scales elliptic, 2.5–4 mm, acute, midrib short-excurrent.
perianth bristles 6, reaching at least to tubercle base, plumose from base to more than 1/2 length of fruit body.
perianth bristles 6, ± equaling tubercle.
1(–2) per spikelet, (2–)2.5–2.8(–3) mm;
body redbrown or brown, tumidly obovoid, (1.5–)2–2.2 × 1–1.7 mm;
surfaces interruptedly transversely rugulose;
tubercle broadly conic, 0.5–0.8(–1) mm, base broadly 2lobed, apex often apiculate.
1 per spikelet, (2.5–)2.7–3.3(–3.5) mm, body pale brown with yellowish center, ± broadly oblong-obovoid distal to stipe, lenticular, 1.5–2 × 0.8–1 mm;
tubercle narrowly triangularsubulate, (1–)1.2–1.5(–2) mm, less than 0.5 mm wide at base.
leaves exceeded by culm;
blades flat, linear, 1–2 mm wide, apex tapering, trigonous.
Rhynchospora pineticola
Rhynchospora chalarocephala
Rhynchospora pineticola is distinguished from taller extremes of R. plumosa by its thicker leaves and scapes and its longer spikelets and fruit. Its bases are a deep rich red-brown rather than the pale brown or dull deep brown of R. plumosa.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Some specimens of Rhynchospora chalarocephala are very difficult to distinguish from R. microcephala, and unquestionably intergrades occur in peninsular Florida and the Gulf southern coastal plain. Rhynchospora chalarocephala tends to have longer, paler, narrower spikelets in looser clusters; the dilated part of the fruit body has a narrower, more oblong outline; and the tubercle is both narrower with a narrower base and longer (mostly 1–1.5 mm versus 0.9–1.2 mm in R. micro-cephala). Most material is easily sorted because R. chalarocephala has paler spikelets in turbinate to hemispheric clusters; the dark brown spikelets of R. microcephala are in globose heads.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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