Rhynchospora wrightiana
Rhynchospora grayi
Wright's beaksedge
Gray's beaksedge
slender, ± filiform, leafy, terete to bluntly trigonous.
erect or excurved, leafy, obscurely trigonous, slender, firm.
shorter than culm;
blades spreading to ascending, ± filiform, proximally flat, 0.5–1(–1.5) mm, apex tapering, trigonous.
shorter than culms;
blades spreading to ascending, linear, proximally flat, 2–4 mm wide, apex involute, then trigonous, subulate.
spikelet clusters 1–3, loose to dense, widely spaced to close together, turbinate to hemispheric; leafy bracts setaceous, mostly exceeding spikelet clusters.
spikelet clusters 1–4, loose to dense, broadly turbinate, lobed or hemispheric;
peduncles and branches ascending; leafy bracts exceeding proximal, sometimes distal, clusters.
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.
light redbrown, ellipsoid or narrowly ovoid, 4–5 mm, apex acute to acuminate;
fertile scales broadly ovate, 3.5–4.5 mm, apex acute or acuminate, apiculate.
bristles 6, of various length, mostly extending from fruit midbody to tubercle base, antrorsely barbellate.
perianth bristles mostly 6, reaching from fruit midbody to tubercle tip or beyond, antrorsely barbellate.
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.
1(–2) per spikelet, 2.5–3 mm;
body dark brown, broadly, tumidly obovoid, 2–2.5 × 2–2.5 mm, apically buttressed to tubercle;
surfaces finely transversely rugulose or nearly level, with fine transverse rows of pits or low papillae, often appearing nearly smooth;
tubercle lowconic, 0.4–0.6 mm, apiculate.
Rhynchospora wrightiana
Rhynchospora grayi
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.)
Of all North American species of Rhynchospora, R. grayi appears best adapted to the xeric conditions found in the coarser sands of the longleaf pine-scrub oak–dominated yellow sandhills. Interestingly, it seems seldom to mix with its closest relative, R. megalocarpa, which is more often found in white sandhills.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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