Slender Nut Rush

Scleria minor is mostly confined to the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains; inland at higher elevations it is very uncommon and usually found in bogs. Some authors subsume the species under a broadly conceived S. triglomerata (R. K. Godfrey and J. W. Wooten 1979; J. W. Kessler 1987).

Plants perennial; rhizomes clustered, nodulose, rather slender, to 3 mm thick, hard. Culms in tufts, usually filiform, very slender, 35–80 cm, base 1–2 mm thick, glabrous or nearly so, somewhat scabrous toward apex. Leaves: sheaths purple tinged, scarcely winged, glabrous or minutely pilose; contra-ligules ovate, quite short, rigid; blades attenuate, keeled, shorter than culms, 1–2.5 mm wide, usually glabrous or nearly so. Inflorescences axillary and terminal, fasciculate; fascicles (1–)2(–3), 10–18 × 4–8 mm, each with 1–5 spikelets, the lateral on long filiform peduncles; bracts subtending inflorescence leaflike, lanceolate, 3–9 cm, long acuminate-attenuate, usually glabrous. Spikelets bisexual and staminate, brown, 3–6 mm; staminate scales lanceolate-acuminate, pistillate scales ovate, midrib excurrent, awnlike. Achenes brownish gray or with dark longitudinal bands, ovoid, 1.5–2 mm, smooth, shining, apex distinctly umbonate; hypogynium somewhat reduced, obscurely 3-angled, low, covered with whitish siliceous, papillose-spiculose crust.

Ala., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., La., Md., Miss., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

Fruiting summer.

Wet sandy or peaty soils in pinelands and savannas or boggy areas; 0–800m.

Scleria triglomerata Michaux var. minor Britton in N. L. Britton and A. Brown, Ill. Fl. N. U.S. 1: 282. 1896