| Author | A. Gray | |
| Distribution | Mostly the southern 2/3 of the Coastal Plain; scarce in the Sandhills and the northeastern Piedmont.
Coastal Plain, NJ to southern FL and eastern TX. | |
| Abundance | Infrequent to frequent in the Coastal Plain; rare in the Sandhills and the edge of the Piedmont. The website editors suggest a State Rank of S4. | |
| Habitat | Wet pine savannas, margins of impoundments, margins of fresh-tidal marshes, pocosin ecotones, wet streamheads. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting July-October. | |
| Identification | The heads are globular in the nominate variety of R. cephalantha, not hemispherical as in var. attenuata. Spikelets are brown to dark brown. The stems usually lean at an angle, not vertical as in R. chalarocephala, which has very dark brown spikelets. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Recent thinking by R. LeBlond and others is that var. pleiocephala is not distinct enough to warrant varietal status; specimens with this label are included here with var. cephalantha. Weakley et al. (2025) also includes var. pleiocephala here.
Members of the genus Rhynchospora -- mainly called beaksedges but also called beakrushes -- are mostly Coastal Plain in distribution and are important members of our longleaf pine savannas, flatwoods, streamheads, depression ponds, Carolina bays, and beaver ponds. They vary from small and wiry to large and coarse. Keys concentrate on features of the achenes (seeds) and the shape and arrangement of the flower clusters (spikelets). The seeds may or not have bristles at their base; bristle number, length, and toothing are critical characters. Size and shape of the seed beaks is also critical. The drawings in Godfrey & Wooten (1979) are extremely helpful, as is the key by LeBlond in Weakley et al. (2025). The genus now includes Dichromena, the white-topped sedges. McMillan (2007) published a superb technical monograph of all eastern U.S. species, complete with specimen images. | |
| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S3S4 [S4] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | OBL link |
| USACE-emp | OBL link |
