Southern Umbrella Sedge

Herbs perennial, rhizomatous, 20–60 cm, glabrous; rhizomes elongate, often forking, scaly; corms absent. Culms spaced along rhizome, erect, slender, wandlike, subterete, nodes swollen. Leaves mostly sheath; principal blades cusplike, thickened, rarely over 4 mm. Inflorescences strictly terminal; spikelets 1 or 2–5, sessile in clusters, exceeding short-linear subtending bract. Spikelets ovoid to lance-ovoid, 7–10(–15) mm, apex blunt; fertile scales ovate to obovate, 2.5–3.5 mm, ciliate; mucro erect, 1/2 or less length of scale; median ribs mostly 5. Flowers: perianth bristles equaling or slightly longer than perianth stipes, retrorsely barbellate; perianth blades ovate, as long as claws, 2–2.5 mm, base thinner, 3-ribbed, apex compressed-conic, apiculate; anthers linear-oblong, 2 mm. Achenes: body angles pale, wirelike, faces lustrous red-brown or chestnut brown, 1 mm; beak narrow, linear, distally papillate or scabridulous. 2n = 46.

Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., Tex.; West Indies (Cuba).

Fruiting summer–fall.

Sands and peats, inner edges of brackish marsh, interdunal swales, mostly along seacoast; 0–100m.

Scirpus scirpoideus (Michaux) T. Koyama; Vaginaria richardii Persoon

Fuirena scirpoidea Michx. Fl. Bor.-Am. 1: 38. 1803
Vaginaria Richardi Pers. Syn. } Fuirena lotiga Chapm. Fl. S.
1: 70. S. ed.
1805. 3. 541.
1897. (Appalachicola, Florida.) Perennial with elongate, woody, horizontal rootstocks ; culms erect, 2-6 dm. tall, the leaves represented by loose sheaths 2-3 cm. long ; spikelets terminal, clustered or sometimes solitary, 5-12 mm. long, the pubescent scales with a short, subulate mucro; perianth-scales with thickened, ovate body (1 mm. long, not awned) with stipe 1 mm. long; achene becoming nearly black when mature, the somewhat hispid beak slightly longer than the scales ; bristles equaling the stipe; anthers 1.5 mm. long.
* See p. 479.
505 Type locality : Florida.
Distribution : Swamps and pineland ; on the coastal plain, Georgia to Louisiana ; Cuba (Pinar del Rio).