Rhynchospora alba (L.) Vahl

  • Authority

    Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

  • Family

    Cyperaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Rhynchospora alba (L.) Vahl

  • Description

    Species Description - Erect perennial to 7 dm, the clustered, very slender stems usually overtopping the lvs, these 0.5–2.5 mm wide; glomerules 1–3, broadly turbinate, 6–20 mm thick, the uppermost barely or scarcely surpassed by its bracts, the lateral ones usually remote and long-pedunculate; spikelets 4–5 mm, whitish, becoming pale brown, with 2(3) fls and 1 or 2 frs; bristles 8–14, biseriate, stout, flattened, about equaling the tubercle, usually retrorsely barbellate, often minutely antrorse-hairy at base; achenes flattened-pyriform, 1.5–2 mm, contracted at base, brownish-green with very faintly transverse brown lines; tubercle subulate, half to two-thirds as long as the achene; 2n=26, 42. Sphagnum- bogs and open conifer-swamps; circumboreal, s. to N.C., O., n. Ind., Minn., and Calif.