Rhynchospora pusilla |
Rhynchospora kunthii |
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Kunth's beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 15–50(–60) cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants solitary or in small tufts, (5–)10–70 cm, clonal; rhizomes strongly present, stoloniferous. |
Culms | erect or arching, leafy toward base, filiform, terete, wiry. |
leafiest toward base, ± trigonous, slender. |
Leaves | overtopped by culm; blades linear to filiform, channeled, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, margins deeply involute, apex setaceous. |
basal leaves spreadingascending, distal more erect, mostly exceeded by culms (except in highaltitude forms); blades proximally flat or strongly folded, 1.5–4 mm wide, apex trigonous, subulate. |
Inflorescences | spikelet clusters 1–2(–3), dense to open, narrowly to broadly turbinate; branches capillary, variously elongate; leafy bracts setaceous, equaling or exceeding clusters. |
spikelet clusters (2–)3–5, compact, proximalmost widely spaced, turbinate to ovoid; peduncles ascending; branches ascending to spreading; leaf bracts exceeding proximalmost clusters, exceeded by distal cluster. |
Spikelets | variously brown, ellipsoid, 2–3 mm, apex sharply acute; fertile scales ovate to nearly orbiculate, rounded, 1.2–1.8 mm, apiculate, convexcupulate, midrib slender, mostly included. |
deep redbrown to nearly black, ovoid, 3–4 mm, apex acute; fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3 mm, apex acute, midrib included or shortexcurrent. |
Flowers | perianth absent. |
perianth bristles 6, some short, some extending to or nearly to tubercle base, antrorsely barbellate. |
Fruits | 2–3 per spikelet, 0.7–0.9(–1) mm; body pale, obovoid-lenticular, (0.5–)0.6–0.9 × 0.4–0.5 mm, margin wirelike; surfaces transversely rugulose; tubercle buttonlike, depressed triangular, 0.05–0.1 mm, base lunate atop rounded fruit body. |
2–3 per spikelet, 2–2.1 mm; body pale yellowbrown, lenticular, broadly ellipsoidobovoid, 1.3–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm; surfaces transversely irregularly rugulose, intervals with rows of vertical, narrowly rectangular alveolae; tubercle evenly or concavely triangular, 0.5–0.6(–0.7) mm. |
Rhynchospora pusilla |
Rhynchospora kunthii |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting late spring–summer. |
Habitat | Moist sands, peats and silts of low meadows, savannas, bogs, seeps, pond shores | Marsh meadows, seeps, boggy sites |
Elevation | 0–300 m (0–1000 ft) | 1000–3500 m (3300–11500 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; Central America; West Indies |
CA; Mexico; South America (Colombia) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 220. | FNA vol. 23, p. 225. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum pusillum, R. intermixta | R. schaffneri |
Name authority | Chapman ex M. A. Curtis: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2, 7: 409. (1849) | Nees ex Kunth: Enum. Pl. 2: 296. (1837) |
Web links |