Rhynchospora microcephala(Britton) Britton

smallhead beaksedge

WFO wfo-0000518720 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, 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.

Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. a Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-09-26 / obs. 97381425
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. b Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 137942826
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. c Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 108306696
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. d Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 107954600
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. e Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 107954545
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Brandon Corder
fig. f Brandon Corder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 107954530
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Matt Berger
fig. g Matt Berger, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 97381455
Rhynchospora microcephala, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. h Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82044540

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 14 botanical countries

Regions where Rhynchospora microcephala is native: Alabama, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Cuba, Jamaica AlabamaFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMarylandMississippiNew JerseyNorth CarolinaSouth CarolinaVirginiaCubaJamaica DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Rhynchospora microcephala, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mississippi MSI
New Jersey NWJ
North Carolina NCA
South Carolina SCA
Virginia VRG
Cuba CUB SOUTHERN AMERICA
Jamaica JAM

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 2 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.

  • Rhynchospora axillaris var. microcephala Britton
  • Rhynchospora cephalantha var. microcephala (Britton) Kük.

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.