Flora of North America species comparison

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Scleria lithosperma

Florida keys nutrush
Habit Plants perennial; rhizomes short, nodulose, aromatic when fresh.
Culms

in tufts, slender, 30–90(–115) cm, glabrous or slightly scabrous.
Leaves

sheaths purplish, wingless, weakly ribbed, finely pilose or nearly glabrous;

contra-ligules reddish, triangular, rigid, distinctly ciliate;

blades distinctly grayish green and revolute when dry, linear, attenuate, keeled, 1–3(–5) mm wide, shorter than culms.
Inflorescences

axillary 1–3, terminal 1, quite lax; stalked spikes or panicles 2–4, terminal one 3–4.5(–8.5) cm with 2–7 open fascicles 2–6(–9) mm wide, of 1–4 spikelets;

bracts subtending and overtopping inflorescence leaflike, broadly attenuate, scabrous.
Spikelets

bisexual (an occasional terminal staminate spikelet), few flowered, 3–5 mm;

staminate scales lanceolate, pistillate scales ovate-acuminate, with prominent green keel.
Achenes

whitish or gray between angles, obscurely trigonous, ovoid or globose, 2–2.5(–3) mm, smooth, base broadly attenuate, somewhat depressed between angles, trigonous, not porose, apex umbonate;

hypogynium obsolete, reduced to distinct brown band at base of achene.

Scleria lithosperma
Phenology Fruiting spring–fall.
Habitat Dry thickets, open woods, hammocks, restricted to limestone soils
Elevation 0 m (0 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; LA; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; tropical Asia; Africa
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 23, p. 246.
Parent taxa Cyperaceae > Scleria
Sibling taxa
S. baldwinii, S. ciliata, S. curtissii, S. distans, S. georgiana, S. lacustris, S. minor, S. muehlenbergii, S. oligantha, S. pauciflora, S. reticularis, S. triglomerata, S. verticillata
Synonyms Scirpus lithospermus
Name authority (Linnaeus) Swartz: Prodr., 18. (1788)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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