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Published In: Flora Boreali-Americana (Michaux) 2: 168. 1803. (Fl. Bor.-Amer.) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 9/1/2009)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Native

 

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5. Scleria triglomerata Michx. (tall nut grass, whipgrass)

Pl. 87 f, g; Map 330

S. nitida Willd.

Plants perennial with short, knotty rhizomes. Aerial stems usually appearing clustered, 40–100 cm long, erect to ascending, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Leaf sheaths often narrowly winged or roughened along the angles, glabrous or more commonly sparsely to densely hairy, often pale green or tinged with purple, the convex tip opposite the leaf blade 2–3 mm long, broadly rounded, glabrous or hairy. Leaf blades 1–30 cm long, 3–9 mm wide, stiff and leathery, glabrous to sparsely hairy, the margins and main veins frequently roughened. Inflorescences few to several clusters of spikelets, these arranged in 1–3 headlike masses. Bracts erect to ascending, 0.8–15 cm long. Spikelets 4.5–6.5 mm long, the scales green to purplish brown. Fruits with the main body 2.0–3.5 mm long at maturity, broadly ovate in outline, the tip usually with a minute point, the surface smooth or rarely obscurely undulate, shiny, white, the basal disk bluntly 3-angled, with a hard, white crust having a densely and finely pebbled or granular texture, lacking tubercles. May–September.

Scattered nearly throughout Missouri (eastern U.S. and adjacent Canada west to Iowa and Texas; Mexico, Caribbean Islands). Upland prairies, glades, savannas, acid seeps, and dry, rocky upland forests; also along ditches and in rocky, disturbed areas.

This is the commonest and most robust species of Scleria in the state. Some botanists have attempted to segregate plants with pale, hairy sheaths or larger fruits as S. nitida. Steyermark (1963) further stated that in Missouri this taxon is restricted to acid seeps and sandstone bluff tops. However, examination of all of the specimens suggests that neither habitat nor morphology work to separate two taxa within this variable complex, which agrees with the findings of Fairey (1967) and Kessler (1987).

 


 

 
 
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