Rhynchospora wrightiana
Rhynchospora plumosa
Wright's beaksedge
plumed beaksedge
slender, ± filiform, leafy, terete to bluntly trigonous.
erect or excurved, filiform to linear.
shorter than culm;
blades spreading to ascending, ± filiform, proximally flat, 0.5–1(–1.5) mm, apex tapering, trigonous.
erect or excurved, shorter than scape;
blades filiform to linear, to 1.5 mm wide, margins involute, apex trigonous, tapering.
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–several, dense or sparse, when several, either widely spaced or close together, if widely spaced then ovoid to hemispheric, if close together then lobed ellipse or cylinder; leafy bracts filiform, setaceous, overtopping each cluster.
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 to deep brown, broadly fusiform to ovoid, (2.5–)3.5–4 mm, apex acute to acuminate;
fertile scale broadly ovate, strongly convex, (1.5–)2–3 mm, apex acuminate to mucronate, midrib excurrent or not.
bristles 6, of various length, mostly extending from fruit midbody to tubercle base, antrorsely barbellate.
perianth bristles 6, plumose, reaching at least to fruit midbody, often to tubercle tip.
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, (1.5–)2–2.5 mm;
body redbrown or brown, tumidly obovoid or ellipsoid, sometimes obscurely lenticular, (1.2–)1.3–1.8(–2) × 1–1.5 mm;
surfaces interruptedly crossrugulose;
tubercle narrowly to broadly conic, mostly 0.3–0.5 mm, base flaring, round or indistinctly 2lobed.
Rhynchospora wrightiana
Rhynchospora plumosa
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.)
Particularly in Gulf Coastal Plain savannas, Rhynchospora plumosa appears to have two distinct morphs: one very densely cespitose with filiform leaves, filiform, arching culms, and spikelets in short, broad, dark brown clusters, and the other morph taller, stiffer, with broader leaves and culms, and longer, sharper, paler spikelets in narrow compounds of clusters. After many attempts to do what others have—namely to create two distinct species—I have had to retrench, because so many intergrades occur.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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