Rhynchospora tracyi |
Rhynchospora solitaria |
|
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Tracy's beaksedge |
onespike beaksedge |
|
Habit | Plants perennial, clonal, to 120 cm; rhizomes scaly, slender, less than 2 mm thick. | Plants perennial, solitary or cespitose, 50–60 cm; rhizomes absent. |
Culms | erect, leafybased, wandlike, nearly terete, multiribbed. |
erect to ascending, narrowly linear, wandlike, terete, leafy proximal to middle. |
Leaves | ascending or erect, longest nearly equaling culm; principal blades linear, involutecylindric, to 3 mm wide, apex tapering, subulate. |
erect to ascending; blades proximally flat, 2.5–3.5 mm wide, apex tapering, tip abruptly blunt. |
Inflorescences | terminal, heads 1–4, dense, macelike, 1–1.5 mm thick; involucral bracts leafy, proximalmost overtopping inflorescence. |
terminal, cluster of spikelets crowded, broadly turbinate to hemispheric, to 1.5 cm wide; leafy bracts linearsetaceous, slightly exceeding cluster. |
Spikelets | greenish, lanceovoid, 5–6 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales boat-shaped, 5 mm, apex acute to shortacuminate, midrib slightly excurrent or not. |
orangebrown, lancefusiform, 6–7 mm, apex acuminate; fertile scales lanceovate, 4–5 mm, apex acuminate with excurved awn to 1 mm. |
Flowers | perianth bristles 6, exceeding fruit body, antrorsely barbellate. |
bristles 3–4, some reaching tubercle tip, antrorsely barbellate. |
Fruits | 1 per spikelet, 6–8(–8.7) mm; body pale greenbrown, laterally compressed, obcordiform, 2.5–3(–4) mm, margins thick, rounded, not crimped, apex barely exserted, setulose, surfaces nearly plane, minutely cancellate (latticed); tubercle (style base) linear, angled, 4–6 mm, much narrower than fruit summit, setulose. |
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. |
Rhynchospora tracyi |
Rhynchospora solitaria |
|
Phenology | Fruiting late spring–fall. | Fruiting summer–fall. |
Habitat | Emergent in shallows of cypress domes, marshes and swales, ditches and ponds | Sandy peat of depressions in pine flatwoods savannas, edges of hillside bogs |
Elevation | 0–100 m (0–300 ft) | 0–200 m (0–700 ft) |
Distribution |
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; West Indies; Central America (Belize)
|
GA |
Discussion | Rhynchospora tracyi frequently forms clones extending for acres by means of its long slender rhizomes. Its wandlike, terete, supple culms, and round-capitate clusters of spikelets suggest a rush more than a sedge. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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.) |
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 207. | FNA vol. 23, p. 238. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora | Cyperaceae > Rhynchospora |
Sibling taxa | ||
Synonyms | Ceratoschoenus capitatus, Phaeocephalum tracyi, Schoenus triceps | |
Name authority | Britton: Trans. New York Acad. Sci. 11: 84. (1892) | R. M. Harper: Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 28: 468. (1901) |
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