Eleocharis microcarpaTorr.

smallfruit spikerush

WFO wfo-0000405106 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Eleocharis microcarpa, photographed by anguspritchard
fig. a anguspritchard, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-10-22 / obs. 54741302
Eleocharis microcarpa, photographed by anguspritchard
fig. b anguspritchard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54741319
Eleocharis microcarpa, photographed by anguspritchard
fig. c anguspritchard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54741295
Eleocharis microcarpa, photographed by anguspritchard
fig. d anguspritchard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54741327
Eleocharis microcarpa, photographed by anguspritchard
fig. e anguspritchard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54741310

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 19 botanical countries

Regions where Eleocharis microcarpa is native: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Cuba, Jamaica, Venezuela AlabamaFloridaGeorgiaIndianaLouisianaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMississippiNew JerseyNorth CarolinaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaCubaJamaicaVenezuela
Native distribution of Eleocharis microcarpa, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Indiana INI
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Mississippi MSI
New Jersey NWJ
North Carolina NCA
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
Cuba CUB SOUTHERN AMERICA
Jamaica JAM
Venezuela VEN

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 8 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Eleocharis cubensis Boeckeler
  • Eleocharis paracicularis Boeckeler
  • Eleocharis torreyana Boeckeler
  • Scirpus microcarpus (Torr.) Kuntze
  • Scirpus paracicularis (Boeckeler) C.Wright ex C.B.Clarke
  • Scirpus paracicularis C.Wright ex R.Knuth
  • Scirpus torreyanus (Boeckeler) Kuntze
  • Trichophyllum torreyanum (Boeckeler) House

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.