Rhynchospora solitaria
Rhynchospora wrightiana
onespike beaksedge
Wright's beaksedge
erect to ascending, narrowly linear, wandlike, terete, leafy proximal to middle.
slender, ± filiform, leafy, terete to bluntly trigonous.
erect to ascending;
blades proximally flat, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, apex tapering, tip abruptly blunt.
shorter than culm;
blades spreading to ascending, ± filiform, proximally flat, 0.5–1(–1.5) mm, apex tapering, trigonous.
terminal, cluster of spikelets crowded, broadly turbinate to hemispheric, to 1.5 cm wide; leafy bracts linearsetaceous, slightly exceeding cluster.
spikelet clusters 1–3, loose to dense, widely spaced to close together, turbinate to hemispheric; leafy bracts setaceous, mostly exceeding spikelet clusters.
orangebrown, lancefusiform, 6–7 mm, apex acuminate;
fertile scales lanceovate, 4–5 mm, apex acuminate with excurved awn to 1 mm.
dark redbrown, lanceovoid, 2.5–3.5(–4) mm, apex acute;
fertile scales ovate, 2–3.5 mm, apex acute or acuminate, rarely minutely awned.
bristles 3–4, some reaching tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate.
bristles 6, of various length, mostly extending from fruit midbody to tubercle base, antrorsely barbellate.
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.
1–2 per spikelet, (2–)2–2.5 mm;
body brown with pale center, lenticular, broadly ellipsoid, 1.5–1.7 × 1.2–1.3 mm, surfaces nearly smooth or very finely cancellate;
tubercle flat, triangular with short-oblong, blunttipped nose, or triangularsubulate, 0.5–0.8 mm.
Rhynchospora solitaria
Rhynchospora wrightiana
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.)
The morphologic boundary between Rhynchospora wrightiana and R. fascicularis (particularly morphs of R. fascicularis referred to R. fascicularis var. distans) is difficult, as recent annotations of the material testify. It is best to consider R. wrightiana as a lower, distinctly filiformleaved entity with darker brown, shorter spikelets and shorter fruit. Kükenthal’s concept of R. wrightiana appears to include a considerable amount of R. fascicularis var. distans.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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