Rhynchospora rariflora(Michx.) Elliott

fewflower beaksedge

WFO wfo-0000520199 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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 rariflora, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. a Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-12-20 / obs. 107856444
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by John Kees
fig. b John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197367365
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by Scott Ward
fig. c Scott Ward, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162674844
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by John Kees
fig. d John Kees, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197367422
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by Scott Ward
fig. e Scott Ward, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 162674921
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. f Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 89493023
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. g Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 107856459
Rhynchospora rariflora, photographed by Jay Horn
fig. h Jay Horn, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 89493047

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Rhynchospora rariflora is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Belize, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Windward Is. AlabamaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMarylandMississippiNew JerseyNorth CarolinaOklahomaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVirginiaBelizeCubaDominican RepublicHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPuerto Rico Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Rhynchospora rariflora, 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
Arkansas ARK
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Mississippi MSI
New Jersey NWJ
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Virginia VRG
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Puerto Rico PUE
Windward Is. WIN

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 10 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.

  • Dichromena micrantha (Vahl) Kunth
  • Haloschoenus sparsus Nees
  • Phaeocephalum rariflorum (Michx.) House
  • Pterochaete drummondii Arn. ex Boeckeler
  • Rhynchospora micrantha Pursh
  • Rhynchospora micrantha Vahl
  • Rhynchospora setacea Willd. ex Kunth
  • Schoenus glaucus Poir.
  • Schoenus rariflorus Michx.
  • Schoenus setaceus Vahl ex Kunth

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.