Rhynchospora solitaria
Rhynchospora brachychaeta
onespike beaksedge
West Indian beaksedge
erect to ascending, narrowly linear, wandlike, terete, leafy proximal to middle.
erect to excurved, lax, filiform, leafy, ± terete.
erect to ascending;
blades proximally flat, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, apex tapering, tip abruptly blunt.
exceeded by culm, ascending;
blades filiform, ± terete, margins strongly involute, apex trigonous, sulcate, tapering.
terminal, cluster of spikelets crowded, broadly turbinate to hemispheric, to 1.5 cm wide; leafy bracts linearsetaceous, slightly exceeding cluster.
spikelet clusters mostly 2–3, sparse to dense, oblong to broadly or narrowly turbinate; leafy bracts setaceous, exceeding clusters.
orangebrown, lancefusiform, 6–7 mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scales lanceovate, 4–5 mm, apex acuminate with excurved awn to 1 mm.
pale redbrown, lanceoloid, 3–3.5 mm, apex acute;
fertile scales mostly elliptic, 2–2.5 mm, apex acute, sometimes apiculate.
bristles 3–4, some reaching tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate.
bristles mere nubs or 1–2, to 0.3 mm.
1–2 per spikelet, 2–2.1 mm;
body brown with paler center, obovoidlenticular, 1.5–1.7 × 1.2–1.3 mm, margins flowing to tubercle;
surfaces finely transversely striate with minute pits;
tubercle lowtriangular, 0.3–0.5 mm.
mostly 2 per spikelet, 1.5–1.6 mm;
body redbrown with pale center, lenticular, broadly obovoid to orbicular, margins pale, narrow, flowing to tubercle;
surfaces smoothish, or faintly cancellate;
tubercle flattened, triangularsubulate, 0.3–0.5 mm.
Rhynchospora solitaria
Rhynchospora brachychaeta
Of conservation concern.
Rhynchospora solitaria appears to be the least common North American species of Rhynchospora with two of the five given localities apparently lost. The name “solitaria” is deceptive; the plants sometimes form small tufts of culms. The most distinctive feature in the field is the attractive orangebrown color of the narrow, acuminate, bristlescaled spikelets.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Rhynchospora brachychaeta is quite possibly adventive; most of its localities in the flora are in disturbed areas near the coast. It is similar to the widespread native R. chapmanii, from which it is distinguished by its more numerous spikelet clusters, the darker spikelets, the achene faces brown with pale centers (rather than pale with brown ends), and the relatively more developed perianth.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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