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Plant Profile

Largebristle Beaksedge (Rhynchospora megaplumosa)

An achene of Rhynchospora megaplumosa is ready to fall, held on only by a few strands of spider web.

 Photo Credit: Wade Collier
  • Global Rank: G2 - Imperiled
  • Legal Status: N/A
  • Family: Cyperaceae
  • State: FL
  • Nature Serve ID: 150439
  • Lifeform: Graminoid
  • Date Inducted in National Collection: 12/01/2022
Description:

Where is Largebristle Beaksedge (Rhynchospora megaplumosa) located in the wild?

States & Provinces:

Largebristle Beaksedge can be found in Florida

Which CPC Partners conserve Largebristle Beaksedge (Rhynchospora megaplumosa)?

  • Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

    Not Sponsored
    Conservation Actions
    Assigned 12/01/22
    • CPC's Plant Sponsorship Program provides long term stewardship of rare plants in our National Collection. We are so grateful for all our donors who have made the Plant Sponsorship Program so successful. We are in the process of acknowledging all our wonderful plant sponsorship donors on our website. This is a work in progress and will be updated regularly.

    Conservation Actions

    Elizabeth Gandy
    • 10/18/2022
      • Orthodox Seed Banking

    The Florida-endangerered largebristle beaksedge (Rhynchospora megaplumosa) can be easy to overlook in the Florida scrub where it prefers to grow. The short leaves form small rosettes that send up a single flowering stem or culm. The flowering head is small, about 2 cm across with many spikelets or florets. The plants blend easily with other sedges, grasses, and saw palmetto fronds, at least until one knows what to look for. The scales of the flowering heads are a beautiful copper and are longer than those of most scrubby sedges, ending in a distinctive point. As the seeds or achenes mature, plumose or feathery bristles attached to their bases expand to push the seeds out of their protective scales, ready to drop to the ground or be carried away on an animal’s fur. This gives the seed heads the appearance of having many long-legged spiders hanging from them.

    Staff, interns, and volunteers from Marie Selby Botanical Gardens collected seed from this sedge species at Lake Manatee State Park in Manatee County, Florida as part of the Center for Plant Conservation’s Florida Rare Plant Initiative. The population at Lake Manatee is sizeable, an estimated 5000 plants. To increase potential for genetic diversity, seeds were collected from plants throughout the population. Each maternal plant that seed was collected from was flagged so additional seeds could be collected as they matured. Plants had a variable number of seeds, with some having only two, while others produced more than 40. Multiple trips throughout July resulted in the collection of over 660 seeds from 56 plants. These seeds will be stored in conservation seed bank collections to help preserve this species into the future.

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    Nomenclature
    Taxon Rhynchospora megaplumosa
    Authority Bridges & Orzell
    Family Cyperaceae
    CPC Number 47417
    ITIS 808447
    USDA RHME3
    Duration Perennial
    Common Names Manatee Beaksedge | Largebristle Beaksedge
    Associated Scientific Names Rhynchospora megaplumosa
    Distribution
    State Rank
    State State Rank
    Florida S2
    Ecological Relationships

    Photos

    Summer interns, Bethany Burns and Abigail Steinwachs, brave the Florida scrub in July to help with collection of seed from the endangered sedge, Rhynchospora megaplumosa. Seeds were collected for ex situ seed banking as part of the Florida Rare Plants Initiative. Photo Credit: Bruce Holst

    The tiny, ridged achenes of Rhynchospora megaplumosa (Cyperaceae) are dwarfed by the plumose bristles that give this species its name. The expansion of the bristles as they mature pushes the achene out from between the scales of the spikelet. Photo Credit: Wade Collier

    An achene of Rhynchospora megaplumosa is ready to fall, held on only by a few strands of spider web.

    Photo Credit: Wade Collier
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