Rhynchospora pusilla |
Rhynchospora mixta |
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mingled beaksedge |
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Habit | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 15–50(–60) cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 80–100 cm; rhizomes stoloniferous, often elongate, slender, to 1 dm or more. |
Culms | erect or arching, leafy toward base, filiform, terete, wiry. |
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Leaves | overtopped by culm; blades linear to filiform, channeled, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, margins deeply involute, apex setaceous. |
exceeded by culm; blades lax, linear, proximally flat, 3–5 mm wide, apex abruptly narrowed, 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 4–6, mostly widely spaced; peduncles erect or ascending, slender; branches capillary, divaricate, or widely spreading, to small clusters of 1–few spikelets; leafy bracts mostly exceeding clusters. |
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. |
lanceovoid, 3–4(–6) mm, apex acute to acuminate; fertile scales elliptic, 2.5 mm, apex acute, midrib forming mucro or awn. |
Flowers | perianth absent. |
perianth bristles 6, overtopping tubercle, 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. |
mostly 2–4(–several) per spikelet, (1.5–)1.8–2(–2.1); body greenish or pale brown, broadly ellipsoid to narrowly obovoid, lenticular, 1.2–1.5 × 1–1.2 mm; surfaces transversely finely wavy-rugulose, intervals vertically striatealveolate, or alveolae isodiametric; tubercle flat, triangular-subulate, 0.5–0.6(–0.8) mm. |
Rhynchospora pusilla |
Rhynchospora mixta |
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Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Moist sands, peats and silts of low meadows, savannas, bogs, seeps, pond shores | Sandy silts of swamp forests and environs |
Elevation | 0–300 m (0–1000 ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; Central America; West Indies |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX
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Discussion | Some extremes of Rhynchospora caduca with more diffuse inflorescences are mistaken for R. mixta, particularly those in which ultimate inflorescence branches lead to solitary spikelets. In those rare instances one should find a somewhat larger spikelet and a broader fruit than is typical for R. mixta. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 220. | FNA vol. 23, p. 224. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum pusillum, R. intermixta | Phaeocephalum proliferum, R. prolifera |
Name authority | Chapman ex M. A. Curtis: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2, 7: 409. (1849) | Britton: in J. K. Small, Fl. S.E. U.S., 197, 1328. (1903) |
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