Eleocharis fallax Weatherby

Locations ofEleocharis fallax Weatherby in Virginia

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Detail

Family
Cyperaceae
Botanical Name
Eleocharis fallax Weatherby
Common Name
Creeping Spikerush
Synonym(s)
Eleocharis ambigens Fern.
Flora of Virginia Name/Status
Eleocharis fallax Weatherby
Comments
FNA uses the name Eleocharis ambigens Fern. for the widespread species called Eleocharis fallax in Atlas lll, and restricts the name fallax to a few problematic plants that may be hybrids (but which also includes the type). The name E. fallax has priority over E. ambigens if following this broader interpretation. The distinction rests on whether styles are bifid and achenes lenticular (= ambigens) or trifid and achenes trigonous (=fallax). The specimens in question apparently have a mixture. However, according to other information presented in FNA, both may, in fact, better be treated as synonyms of E. uniglumis! Until the significance and sorting of these characters are better understood, we choose to regard ambigens as ambiguous, as the species epithet implies.
Habitat
Oligohaline or, rarely, freshwater tidal marshes and swamps, interdune ponds, and maritime swamps. Infrequent to locally common in the estuarine zone of the Coastal Plain, north to Stafford County; especially abundant in and characteristic of oligohaline wind-tidal marshes of the Embayed Region in far se. Virginia (Back Bay; lower North Landing and Northwest rivers).
Native Status
Native

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