| Author | (Biehler) Lamson-Scribner | |
| Distribution | Mountains and Piedmont; scattered on the Coastal Plain in nutrient-rich sites near brownwater rivers, but scarce on the Outer Banks. Absent from the Sandhills proper.
MA to IL south to northern FL and TX. | |
| Abundance | Fairly common to common in the Mountains and Piedmont; infrequent in the western and central Coastal Plain, but rare on the Outer Banks and other outer Coastal Plain counties. This species, collected from nearly 70 counties, is certainly an S5 species, not S4 as ranked by the NCNHP. | |
| Habitat | Mesic to moist hardwood forests, pine-hardwood forests, maritime deciduous forests, often above rivers or streams and soils nutrient-rich or mineral-rich. | |
| Phenology | Flowering and fruiting April-June. | |
| Identification | Wedgescales are not well-known as a group and tend to escape notice, especially as most species average only 1-2 feet tall. This one and Longleaf Wedgescale (S. filiformis) are particularly hard to characterize, as they look ordinarily "grassy." Longleaf Wedgescale is notable, however, for its slender leaves -- mostly less than 1.5 mm wide versus 2-5 mm wide in Shiny Wedgescale. The inflorescence is pale green or yellowish green, with ascending branches. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | None
| |
| Other Common Name(s) | Shiny Wedgegrass | |
| State Rank | S4 [S5] | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | UPL link |
| USACE-emp | FAC link |
