Rhynchospora holoschoenoides(Rich.) Herter

fly beaksedge

WFO wfo-0000517418 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. a Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-16 / obs. 179688549
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. b Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166103431
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. c Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 166102807
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by ritirene
fig. d ritirene, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 131722453
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. e Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 128956008
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. f Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113105759
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by Bryan Connolly
fig. g Bryan Connolly, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182979925
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, photographed by ritirene
fig. h ritirene, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156777697

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
1321172
Filed as
Rhynchospora holoschoenoides (Rich.) Herter
Det. by
W. W. Thomas 2017-01-01
Collected
A. H. Liogier 1968-08-31
Origin
DO
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 56 botanical countries

Regions where Rhynchospora holoschoenoides is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Congo, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Windward Is. AngolaBeninBotswanaCape ProvincesCongoDR CongoEquatorial GuineaGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMadagascarMozambiqueNamibiaNigerSenegalSierra LeoneTanzaniaZambiaZimbabweMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela MauritiusBahamasLeeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Rhynchospora holoschoenoides, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Cape Provinces CPP
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Equatorial Guinea EQG
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Mauritius MAU
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Tanzania TAN
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 150 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 12.3 °C 22.5 °C 24.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.1 °C 30.3 °C 32.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,011 mm 2,975 mm 3,444 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 46 mm 247 mm 507 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 150 research-grade observations of Rhynchospora holoschoenoides that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 36 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.

  • Cephaloschoenus oligocephalus Hochst.
  • Cephaloschoenus polycephalus Nees
  • Cephaloschoenus tenuirostris Nees
  • Dichromena cyperoides (Mart.) J.F.Macbr.
  • Ephippiorhynchium polycephalum (Nees) Nees
  • Ephippiorhynchium tenuirostre Nees
  • Mariscus piluliferus G.Bertol.
  • Rhynchospora arechavaletae Boeckeler
  • Rhynchospora arechavaletae f. pleiocephala Osten
  • Rhynchospora arechavaletae var. ostenii (Kük.) Kük.
  • Rhynchospora cyperoides Mart.
  • Rhynchospora cyperoides var. longifructus Kük.
  • Rhynchospora cyperoides var. triquetrifolia Kük.
  • Rhynchospora dolichostyla K.Schum.
  • Rhynchospora globulifera Link
  • Rhynchospora mauritii Steud.
  • Rhynchospora ostenii Kük.
  • Rhynchospora polycephala (Nees) Wydler ex Kunth
  • Rhynchospora riedeliana Gand.
  • Rhynchospora schoenoides Britton
  • Rhynchospora sparganioides Bojer
  • Rhynchospora sphaerocephala Boeckeler
  • Rhynchospora tenuirostris (Nees) Kunth
  • Rhynchospora triceps (Vahl) Hochst.

and 12 more.

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.