Common Name: SEDGE FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb, often rhizomed or stoloned, often of wet open places; roots fibrous; monoecious, dioecious, or flowers bisexual. Stem: generally 3-sided, generally solid. Leaf: generally 3-ranked; base sheathing, sheath generally closed, ligule generally 0; blade (0 or) linear, parallel-veined. Inflorescence: spikelets generally arranged in head-, spike-, raceme-, or panicle-like inflorescences; flower generally sessile in axil of flower bract, enclosed in a sac-like structure (perigynium) or generally not. Flower: unisexual or bisexual, small, generally wind-pollinated; perianth 0 or generally bristle like; stamens generally 3, anthers attached at base, 4 chambered; ovary superior, chamber 1, ovule 1, style 2--3(4)-branched. Fruit: achene, 2--3 sided. Genera In Family: +- 100 genera, 5000 species: especially temperate. Note: Difficult; taxa differ in technical characters of inflorescence, fruit. In Carex and Kobresia, what appear to be individual pistillate flowers in fact are highly reduced inflorescences (whether or not the same applies to staminate flowers is still under debate). In some other works (e.g., FNANM) these are called spikelets, and they are treated as being arranged in spikes. Here and in TJM (1993), what appear to be individual pistillate flowers are called pistillate flowers in Carex (and they are treated as being arranged in spikelets), but spikelets in Kobresia (and they are treated as being arranged into spikes). Though internally inconsistent, the approach here is consistent with traditional usage, and reflects a preference for character states that may be determined in the field. Molecular, morphological, and embryological evidence indicates that Eriophorum crinigerum is to be segregated to a new genus, as Calliscirpus criniger (A. Gray) C.N. Gilmour et al., along with a second, newly described species, Calliscirpus brachythrix C.N. Gilmour et al. (Gilmour et al. 2013); key to genera modified by Peter W. Ball to include Calliscirpus. eFlora Treatment Author: S. Galen Smith, except as noted Scientific Editor: S. Galen Smith, Thomas J. Rosatti, Bruce G. Baldwin.
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, scapose, rhizomed or not. Stem: +- cylindric or flat, often prominent-ridged, <= 1 mm diam. Leaf: several, basal, spiraled, flower stem with 1+ cauline; blade flat proximally, longest > sheath, <= 4 mm wide; sheath distally open, margin scabrous, tip hairs << 1 mm, stiff; ligule 0 or of short hairs. Inflorescence: 1, terminal, branched or head-like, inflorescence bracts (1)2--8; spikelets (1)80+, cylindric [(flat)]; flower bracts 8--100, spiraled, each with 1 flower in axil or occasionally 0 in proximal 1--2, membranous, glabrous or puberulent, tip entire, mucronate, or short-awned. Flower: bisexual; perianth 0; style often flat, 2[3]-branched, base enlarged, not persistent. Fruit: 2--3-sided, wide-obovate, minute-netted-honeycombed, occasionally warty, brown or +- white, mucronate. Etymology: (Latin: fimbria, fringe, and stylus, style) Note:Fimbristylis miliacea record (1866) undocumented for California. eFlora Treatment Author: S. Galen Smith Reference: Kral 2002 FNANM 23:121--131
Fimbristylis vahlii (Lam.) Link
NATIVE Habit: Annual 4--15 cm, rhizome 0. Stem: < 0.5 mm diam. Leaf: smooth or hairy-scabrous; blade < 0.5 mm wide; ligule 0. Inflorescence: head-like; longest inflorescence bracts >> inflorescence; spikelets +- (1)2--15, 2--5 mm, 1--1.5 mm wide; flower bracts keeled, glabrous, acute. Flower: anther +- 0.2 mm; style 2-branched, flat, glabrous, base enlarged. Fruit: 0.5--0.7 mm, 2-sided, +- white, with sharp angles, transverse-rectangular cells. Chromosomes: 2n=20. Ecology: Moist to wet soil, alluvial or mineralized banks, shores, fluctuating pond, lake margins; Elevation: < 200 m. Bioregional Distribution: s SNF, SnJV, e DSon (Imperial Co.); Distribution Outside California: to southeastern United States, South America. Flowering Time: Jul--Nov Note: Often a "drawdown" plant around stock tanks, reservoirs. Synonyms: Scirpus vahlii Lam. Jepson eFlora Author: S. Galen Smith Reference: Kral 2002 FNANM 23:121--131 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Fimbristylis thermalis Next taxon: Isolepis
Botanical illustration including Fimbristylis vahlii
Citation for this treatment: S. Galen Smith 2012, Fimbristylis vahlii, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=25951, accessed on April 17, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on April 17, 2024.
Geographic subdivisions for Fimbristylis vahlii:
s SNF, SnJV, e DSon (Imperial Co.)
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
Data provided by the participants of the
Consortium of California Herbaria.
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