Rhynchospora torreyana |
Rhynchospora curtissii |
|
---|---|---|
Torrey's beaksedge |
Curtiss' beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, cespitose, 50–100 cm; rhizomes absent. | Plants perennial, densely cespitose, 10–30 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | ascending-excurved, leafy, ± terete, slender. |
lax, erect to excurved, leafy toward base, filiform. |
Leaves | ascending, overtopped by culm; blades narrowly linear, proximally flat, 2–3 mm wide, apex trigonous, tapering. |
overtopped by scape; blades filiform, distally flattened, channeled, tapering, to 1 mm wide, margins strongly involute, apex blunt. |
Inflorescences | spikelet clusters (1–)2–3, widely spaced, open to dense, broadly to narrowly turbinate, branches ascending to slightly spreading, capillary; leafy bracts setaceous-tipped, overtopping all but distal clusters. |
spikelet clusters 1–3, laterals widely spaced, all narrowly turbinate, ellipsoid, or ovoid; leafy bracts setaceous, overtopping proximal clusters, often overtopped by terminal ones. |
Spikelets | light red-brown, ovoid, 3.5–5 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales ovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, apex acute, midrib excurrent as cusp or mucro. |
erect or ascending, redbrown, lanciform, mostly 4.5–5 mm, apex acute; fertile scales lanceolate, (3–)4–4.5 mm, apex acute, apiculate. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 6, reaching at most 2/3 length of fruit body, antrorsely barbellate. |
perianth absent. |
Fruits | 1–4(–5) per spikelet, 2 mm; body brown, strongly compressed, obovoid-ellipsoid, 1.4–1.6 × 1–1.2 mm, margins flowing to tubercle; surfaces finely transversely rugose, intervals with narrow vertical alveolae; tubercle flat, low-triangular, 0.2–0.3(–0.5) mm. |
2–3(–5) per spikelet; stipe and receptacle 0.1–0.2(–0.3) mm, setose; body brown with pale glassy center, narrowly obovoidellipsoid, lenticular, 1.2–1.5 mm, margins narrow, flowing to tubercle; surfaces very finely lined longitudinally, transversely with wavy lines of tiny pits; tubercle narrowly triangular or slightly concavesided, flattened, 0.7–1.2(–1.5) mm. |
Rhynchospora torreyana |
Rhynchospora curtissii |
|
Phenology | Fruiting summer–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Sands and peats of low meadows, savannas, flatwoods, pond shores, ditch banks | Sands and peats of bogs, pineland pond shores, seeps, and low moist savannas |
Elevation | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; CT; DE; FL; GA; MA; MD; NC; NJ; NY; RI; SC; VA |
AL; FL; MS |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 224. | FNA vol. 23, p. 234. |
Parent taxa | ||
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Phaeocephalum torreyanum | Phaeocephalum curtissii, R. filifolia var. ellipsoidea |
Name authority | A. Gray: Ann. Lyceum Nat. Hist. New York 3: 197. (1835) | Britton: in J. K. Small, Fl. S.E. U.S., 195, 1327. (1903) |
Web links |