Southern Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Rhynchospora perplexa Britton
- Family: Sedge (Cyperaceae)
- Flowering: July-September
- Field Marks: All species of beakrush have tubercles on the achenes and bristles that subtend the achenes. The pineland beakrush has wrinkled-looking, flat achenes that are longer than the bristles. The bristles also have upward pointing hairs.
- Habitat: Swamps, bogs, low pinelands, wet prairies, savannas, ditches, flatwoods, sometimes growing in shallow water.
- Habit: Tufted perennial.
- Stems: Upright, mostly unbranched, smooth, up to 3 feet tall.
- Leaves: Elongated, flat, smooth, up to 1/6 inch wide, much shorter than the flowering stem.
- Flowers: Borne in spikelets, with spikelets arranged in branched, axillary clusters; branches of the flower clusters very slender.
- Spikelets: 2- to 4-flowered, ovoid, dark brown, up to 1/6 inch long.
- Sepals: 0.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 3.
- Pistils: Ovary superior.
- Fruits: Achenes flat, elliptic to obovate, reddish, wrinkled-looking, 1/8-1/6 inch long, subtended by 1-6 bristles much shorter than the achenes; bristles with upward pointing hairs.
- Notes: Sometimes the bristles that subtend the achene are absent.
Previous Species -- Nodding Beakrush (Rhynchospora inexpansa)
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