Rhynchospora species
Common Name(s): Beakrushes, horned-rushes
Native to Florida
There are about 200 species of beakrushes world-wide, with about 2 dozen growing in Florida’s wetlands. Some are easily identified by their conspicuous long “beaks” at the tips of the spikelets. They are a preferred food of whistling ducks.
Beakrushes are beakrush sedges. tufted, clumped or spreading; stems solid, triangular, to 5 ft. tall; leaf blades flat or rolled, from the base, smooth, margins usually rough to touch, in 3 ranks; inflorescences on stem tips, complex, many branched heads or clusters; bracts leaf-like, usually longer than the inflorescence; spikelets on branch tips, solitary or clustered; nutlet oblong or ovoid, with short or long “beaks”
Rhynchospora breviseta
Rhynchospora curtissii
Rhynchospora megaplumosa
