Rhynchospora capillacea
Fl. N. Middle United States 1: 55. 1823.
Illustrator:
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Plants perennial, cespitose, 10–40 cm, wiry; rhizomes stoloniferous, slender, to 1.5 mm thick. Culms erect or curved, leafy, filiform, angularly fewribbed. Leaves ascending-excurved, overtopped by culm; blades filiform, involute, apex setaceous. Inflorescences: spikelet clusters 1–2(–3), often sparse, ellipsoid or narrowly turbinate, less than 1 cm wide; subtending foliaceous bracts exceeding compounds. Spikelets erect or ascending, pale redbrown to brown, fusiform, 6–7 mm; fertile scales elliptic, 4 mm, apex rounded or acute, midrib shortexcurrent or not. Flowers: perianth bristles 6, overtopping tubercle base, mostly retrorsely barbellate, sometimes smooth [forma laeviseta (E. J. Hill) Fernald]. Fruits 1–4(–5) per spikelet, 2.5–3 mm; body pale brown, slender stipitate, ellipsoid, lenticular, 1.5–2 × 0.8–1 mm; surfaces longitudinally minutely striate, obscurely transversely lowrugose, dotted; tubercle narrowly triangularsubulate, flattened, 0.8–1.7 mm.
Phenology: Fruiting summer–fall.
Habitat: Moist to wet calcareous fens, seeps over limestones or calcareous rock, marsh meadows
Elevation: 0–1000 m
Distribution
Alta., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., Ont., Que., Sask., Ala., Ark., Conn., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.Dak., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.Dak., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., Wis.
Discussion
The two beakrushes most commonly occurring in fens are Rhynchospora capillacea and R. capitellata.
Selected References
None.