Rhynchospora pineticola |
Rhynchospora debilis |
|
---|---|---|
pine barren beaksedge |
savannah beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, mostly densely cespitose, 20–70 cm, base deep rich redbrown; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 20–45 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect to ascending, leafy, stiff. |
erect to arching or spreading, leafy, ± filiform, ± terete, stiff to rather lax. |
Leaves | shorter than scape; blades narrowly linear, (1–)2–3 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, tapering. |
exceeded by culm; blades linearfiliform, proximally shallowly concave, 1 mm, apex tapering, trigonous, blunt or broadly acute. |
Inflorescences | clusters 1–2, if 2 then close together, dense, broadly turbinate to hemispheric or lobedglobose; primary leafy bract linear, stiff, exceeding clusters. |
spikelet clusters 1–2, mostly compact, turbinate to hemispheric; leafy bracts setaceous, exceeding spikelet clusters. |
Spikelets | 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. |
dark redbrown, ovoid, 2–3 mm, apex acute; fertile scales obovate, 1.5–1.7(–2) mm, apex broadly rounded or retuse, midrib excurrent as cusp or mucro to 0.5 mm. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 6, reaching at least to tubercle base, plumose from base to more than 1/2 length of fruit body. |
bristles 6 or vestigial, rarely reaching fruit midbody, antrorsely barbellate. |
Fruits | 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. |
1–2 per spikelet,1.7–2 mm; body brown with large pale center, lenticular, broadly obovoid to ± orbicular, 1.2–1.5 × 1.4–1.6 mm; tubercle flat, triangular, concave-sided, 0.4–0.6 mm, sometimes apiculate. |
Rhynchospora pineticola |
Rhynchospora debilis |
|
Phenology | Fruiting spring–fall or all year. | Fruiting late spring–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and sandy peat of bog margins, pinelands and pine saw palmetto flats among wiregrass | Sands and peats in low, open fields, bogs, seeps, low pinelands, savannas, and ditch banks |
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
FL; West Indies (Cuba)
|
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; VA |
Discussion | 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.) |
Rhynchospora debilis is very similar to R. wrightiana except it has smaller spikelet clusters and more depressed fruit tubercles. It is a common invader of cutover and bulldozed low pineland where it assumes a lowspreading habit, its many culms radiating from the common center much like spokes in a wheel. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 219. | FNA vol. 23. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum intermedium, R. intermedia, R. plumosa var. intermedia | R. fascicularis var. debilis |
Name authority | C. B. Clarke: Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew, addit. ser. 8: 40. (1908) | Gale: Rhodora 46: 194, plate 826, figs. 5A, B. (1944) |
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