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.
Common Name: BEAKED-RUSH Habit: Perennial herb [annual] 5--100(150) cm; rhizomes generally 0. Stem: generally 3-angled, <= 2 mm diam, glabrous, margin often minute-scabrous. Leaf: few to many, basal and cauline, spiraled; blade > sheath, 0.5--3 mm wide, proximally flat, midrib abaxially keeled or not, margin generally, midrib occasionally scabrous; sheath permanently tubular (not splitting), glabrous; ligule present or 0. Inflorescence: generally several, terminal and axillary, branched [head]; spikelets several to many, cylindric, 3.5--5.5 mm, on short stalks with spikelet bracts; flower bracts +- 5, spiraled [2-ranked], each with 1 flower in axil or proximal 1 or more smaller, with 0 flower, and intergrading with spikelet bracts, 1.7--3.5(4) mm, ovate, membranous, glabrous, generally mucronate or short-awned. Flower: bisexual or occasionally distal-most staminate; perianth bristles 2--12[20], to +- exceeding tubercle, barbed, persistent on fruit [not]; style 2[3]-branched, base much enlarged, persistent on fruit as a prominent tubercle. Fruit: 2-sided [+- cylindric], body (except tubercle) obovate to pear-shaped, smooth or winkled [variously sculptured otherwise], brown. Etymology: (Greek: snout seed) Note: Kral's (2002) statement that Rhynchospora kunthii Kunth, Rhynchospora recognita (Gale) Kral (treated here as a synonym of Rhynchospora globularis) are both in California is evidently undocumented. eFlora Treatment Author: S. Galen Smith Reference: Kral 2002 FNANM 23:200--239
Rhynchospora alba (L.) Vahl
NATIVE Stem: <= 1 mm diam, angles 3, sharp, minute-scabrous below inflorescence. Leaf: blade 0.5--1.5 mm wide, margin minute-scabrous. Inflorescence: spikelets 3.5--5.5 mm, elliptic, pale brown to +- white, tip acute; flower bracts (3)3.5--4 mm. Flower: perianth bristles 10--12, equal to or exceeding tubercle tip, barbs reflexed. Fruit: (2.3)2.5--3 mm including tubercle, +- smooth, base narrow-stalk-like, tubercle +- 1 mm. Chromosomes: 2n=26,42. Ecology: Boggy open sites; Elevation: < 2000 m. Bioregional Distribution: NCo (Mendocino Co.), KR (Trinity Co.), CaRH, n SNH (Plumas Co.), c SNH (Tuolumne Co.); Distribution Outside California: to Alaska, eastern Canada; eastern United States, Puerto Rico, Eurasia. Flowering Time: Jul--Aug Jepson eFlora Author: S. Galen Smith Reference: Kral 2002 FNANM 23:200--239 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Listed on CNPS Rare Plant Inventory Previous taxon: Rhynchospora Next taxon: Rhynchospora californica
Botanical illustration including Rhynchospora alba
Citation for this treatment: S. Galen Smith 2012, Rhynchospora alba, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=41238, accessed on October 15, 2024.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2024, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on October 15, 2024.
Geographic subdivisions for Rhynchospora alba:
NCo (Mendocino Co.), KR (Trinity Co.), CaRH, n SNH (Plumas Co.), c SNH (Tuolumne 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 occurrence).
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Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
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