Vascular Plants of North Carolina

Account for Smith's Bulrush - Schoenoplectiella smithii (Fernald) Hayasaka

Section 5 » Family Cyperaceae

Author	(Fernald) Hayasaka
Distribution	Mountains only. So far, known only from Macon and Polk counties. Macon: wet grounds, Highlands, 16 August 1910, Anderson 1944 (BYU); specimen annotated from Scirpus debilis by S.G. Smith in 2003. Polk: W end Lake Adger above bridge in flats of floodplain, 10 September 1953, Freeman 53455 (UNCA); specimen annotated by J.W. Petranka in 2015. Note that Weakley's (2020) map indicates the NC records as being of Uncertain Provenance, as the species is native mainly in the Coastal Plain from eastern VA northward. Que. to MN south to northern VA and IL; disjunct to sw NC.
Abundance	Rare. The editors suggest a rank of [SE?], and Watch List status [W4], as it is not clear if the species is native to NC.
Habitat	"Wet grounds" and "in flats of floodplain."
Phenology	Fruiting July-August.
Identification	Smith's Bulrush is very similar to Bluntscale Bulrush and must be identified via mature achenes under a scope. Achenes of smithii are slightly shorter and plano-convex (one face +- flat) vs. biconvex in purshiana)--NOTE: these characters are reversed in Weakley (2020). See FNA for other characters, all of which overlap and which must be used in combination to reach a consensus. One character that may be more useful is the uniformly slender achene bristles in smithii vs. slightly wider in pushiana. This requires direct comparison, such as at an herbarium.
Taxonomic Comments	According to Weakley (2020) NC plants are variety setosus, which has achene bristles.
Other Common Name(s)
State Rank	[SE?]
Global Rank	G5
State Status	[W4]
US Status
USACE-agcp
USACE-emp

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