Rhynchospora pusilla |
Rhynchospora odorata |
|
---|---|---|
|
fragrant beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 15–50(–60) cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, cespitose, 100–180 cm; rhizomes often present, short, scaly. |
Culms | erect or arching, leafy toward base, filiform, terete, wiry. |
erect to ascending, leafy, slender, angular. |
Leaves | overtopped by culm; blades linear to filiform, channeled, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, margins deeply involute, apex setaceous. |
exceeded by culm; blades linear, proximally flat, 3–6 mm wide, apex tapering, 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. |
of terminal and axillary clusters, 3–5, proximalmost widely spaced, turbinate or lobed, fascicles dense, branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding all but proximalmost 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. |
rich redbrown, ovoid, (4–)5–6(–7) mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, (3.5–)4–5 mm, apex acuminate, midrib short or longexcurrent. |
Flowers | perianth absent. |
perianth bristles 6, reaching past 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 3–4(–7) per spikelet, 3 mm with pedicellar joint and tubercle; body pale yellowbrown, obovoidlenticular, 1.4–1.7 × 1.4 × 1.5; surfaces transversely finely wavyrugulose, intervals vertically rectangularalveolate; pedicellar joint 0.3–0.6 mm; tubercle compressed, triangularacuminate, 0.5–0.6 (–1) mm, margin setulose. |
Rhynchospora pusilla |
Rhynchospora odorata |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall or all year (south). |
Habitat | Moist sands, peats and silts of low meadows, savannas, bogs, seeps, pond shores | Sands and peats of swamps, marshes, interdunal swales, low meadows, savannas |
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; NC; SC; West Indies (Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica)
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 220. | FNA vol. 23, p. 223. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum pusillum, R. intermixta | Phaeocephalum stipitatum, R. stipitata |
Name authority | Chapman ex M. A. Curtis: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2, 7: 409. (1849) | C. Wright ex Grisebach: Cat. Pl. Cub., 242. (1866) |
Web links |