Scleria muehlenbergii
Scleria baldwinii
Muehlenberg's nutrush
Baldwin's nutrush
solitary or in tufts, erect or spreading, slender, 20–90(–125) cm, glabrous or hairy.
stout, 30–90 cm, base smooth or slightly scabrous distally.
sheaths often purplish tinged at base, sometimes somewhat winged, ribbed, glabrous or densely pubescent;
contra-ligules rotund-obtuse, short;
blades linear, flat, often ribbed, obtuse, shorter than or equaling culm, 1–5(–8) mm wide, glabrous or sparsely hirsute, sometimes scabrous on margins and veins abaxially.
sheaths purple or brownish, tight, smooth or weakly ribbed, narrowly winged, glabrous;
contra-ligules minute, obtuse;
blades linear, keeled, shorter than culms, 1–5 mm wide, rigid, glabrous or slightly scabrous on margins.
axillary and terminal, paniculate;
panicles diffuse, 15–40(–80) mm, lateral clusters ± remote, the proximal pedunculate, peduncles often recurved or pendulous, filiform, compressed, (15–)20–100 mm;
bracts subtending inflorescence leaflike, a bracteal leaf subtending panicles, usually 1/4–3/4 length of terminal internode, margins scabrous.
1–2 cm;
clusters 1, 5–15 mm wide, each with 3–7 spikelets;
bracts subtending inflorescence awl-shaped, 4–15 cm × 1–4 mm.
bisexual or unisexual; staminate spikelets 2–3 mm, pistillate spikelets 3–4(–5) mm; staminate scales lanceolate, pistillate scales ovate-lanceolate, acuminate.
bisexual and staminate, 5–10 mm; staminate spikelets many flowered; staminate scales lanceolate, membranous, pistillate scales ovate-acuminate, rigid.
gray or brownish and/or with dark interangular lines and little pubescence, globose to ovoid, 1–3(–3.5) mm, reticulate to completely smooth, somewhat verrucose in some forms, reticulations smooth or pubescent with tufts of yellowish hairs, apex umbonate;
hypogynium distinctly 3-lobed, lobes ovate-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, sometimes cuspidate, appressed to base of achene.
dull white or often brownish gray or with dark gray bands, obscurely trigonous, ovoid-globose, 3–4 mm, smooth, often ribbed, base without pores, sides concave between angles, distinctly trigonous, pointed, apex conspicuously mucronate;
hypogynium obsolete, reduced to small brownish ring just distal to pointed base.
Scleria muehlenbergii
Scleria baldwinii
Scleria muehlenbergii is uncommon inland from the Coastal Plain, occurring usually in wet places at lower elevations.
This complex in Scleria is a difficult one. Recent authors recognized this plant as only a variety of S. reticularis, using the name S. reticularis var. pubescens. Taking all characters into consideration, S. muehlenbergii appears to be geographically, ecologically, and morphologically distinct from S. reticularis in the flora. As recognized here, S. muehlenbergii is quite variable in stature and achene size and sculpturing. In the United States, occasional plants occur with glabrous achenes, and some collections have achenes lacking or almost lacking sculpturing. Those variants maintain other features of S. muehlenbergii. Some tropical collections of the complex appear to be identical to United States material of S. muehlenbergii; other specimens appear somewhat different and combine characteristics in alternative ways. Those plants do not appear to be simple intermediates between S. muehlenbergii and S. reticularis. Plants from the Caribbean appear to be essentially identical to plants from the United States. Specimens of this complex from Mexico and Central America are also similar in most features to S. muehlenbergii, but some western Mexican plants are quite different, as noted by R. McVaugh (1993b), and Mexican and Central American plants usually have longer inflorescence bracts and often less pubescent achenes. More study is clearly needed here.
R. McVaugh (1993b) suggested that the oldest name available at varietal rank is Scleria bracteata var. angusta Grisebach. The combination under S. reticularis appears not to have been made.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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