Reverchon's Spike Rush

Eleocharis reverchonii perhaps should be treated as a variety or subspecies of E. acicularis. One collection (three sheets at KSC) from Calhoun county in southeastern Texas is apparently the only known example within E. subg. Scirpidium with proliferous spikelets.

Plants perennial; rhizomes sometimes not evident, 0.3–0.5 mm thick, internodes 3–11 mm, scales not evident. Culms sometimes arched, smooth or obscurely 4- or 5-angled or -ridged, terete or slightly compressed, 6–25 cm × 0.15–0.3 mm, soft to firm. Leaves: distal leaf sheaths persistent, red proximally, colorless distally, closely sheathing, apex blunt. Spikelets ovoid, 2–6 × 1–2 mm, apex acute; scales 5–15, 5 per mm of rachilla, bright red-brown, midrib region green to stramineous, ovate, 1.5–1.7 × 1 mm, midrib keeled to obscure, apex blunt to acute. Flowers: perianth bristles absent; anthers 0.5–1 × 0.2 mm. Achenes with angles plus longitudinal ridges ca. 8–9, obscure to rather prominent, obovoid to obpyriform, much less than 2 times longer than wide, 0.55–0.6 × 0.3–0.4 mm, trabeculae 20–30, rather obscure and crowded. Tubercles brownish to whitish, pyramidal to depressed, 0.1–0.15 × 0.1–0.2 mm.

Tex.

Fruiting late winter–spring (Feb–Apr).

Wet soil of ponds, marshes, grasslands, ditches; of conservation concern; 10–200m.

Eleocharis reverchonii Svenson, Rhodora 31 : 203. 1929.
Extensively creeping, with long, filiform rootstocks; culms capillary, sulcate, 2-20 cm. long; spikelets 2-4 mm. long, purple, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, many-flowered; scales ovate, obtuse, hyaline at the margin; style trifid; anthers 3, 0.7-1.0 mm. long; achenes 0.5-0.7 mm. long, narrowed at apex and base, with about 20 trabeculae in each longitudinal series ; style-base conic; bristles lacking.
* "yokoscencis," corrected in index. Type locality: Western Texas (Reverchon). Distribution : Prairies, Texas.