Cyperus difformis L (CYPERACEAE)-Pr...

Cyperus difformis L (CYPERACEAE)-Prince Georges County: Several bunchs in standing water along side of dirt and gravel road leading to Suitland morass Suitland Bog Natural Area, E side of short unnamed drainage into Henson cove 0.5 km N of jct of Suitland Parkway and Suitland Road (SR 218) 15 km NW of Morningside, and 2 km SE of Suitland, 22 September 2000 M T efficient 2630 with R. H. Simmons & L Bierer-Garrett (GMUF US).

Significance. This is the first known report of this species for Maryland. Cyperus difformis is native to western and tropical Asia (Lipscomb 1980) and is widespread in warm and temperate regions of the antique World from southern Europe southerly to South Africa, east by the and of India, Malesia, Philippines, Japan, and the Pacific Islands (including the Hawaiian islands). Lipscomb (1980) showed that it is now spreading and becoming established in the fresh World. The first known record from the modern World was made in 1851 through Charles Wright from Sonora, Mexico, erroneously cited as novel Mexico by Kiikenthal (1936). It has since been gathered in Nicaragua and the United States. Bryson et al. (1996) provided an update to the distribution of this plant in the United States since Lipscomb (1980) They recorded it as now ranging from California, where it has become invasive, toward the south to Arizona and New Mexico, east to Nebraska, southern Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee Kentucky Florida, Georgia, southern Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. It is now extant in twenty states (including Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian islands), thirteen more than the seven cited by dint of Lipscomb (1980). Recent collections deposited at US include pair specimens from Fairfax County, Virginia, just southerly of Washington, D.C. (Dyke Marsh below Alexandria, s G. Shetler & A. E Schuyler sn 12 October 1979; and Franconia, 26 September 1999 M T hardy 2230) and one from southerly Carolina made in 1998 (J Nelson 19858)

In the of advanced age World tropics, Cyperus difformis is a characteristic species of wet rice fields. In the recent World, it generally occurs in wet habitats that have been newly disturbed, such as rice or other agricultural fields, river multitude plains, drainage ditches, roadside ditches and swales, and wetland mitigation pond

Rhynchospora oligantha A. Gray (CYPERACEAE)-Prince Georges County: Suitland swamp 1.4 mi. SE of Suitland, interpret gravelly seepage with Drosera, Sarracenia, and Xyris, 19 July 1953 F H Sargent 6370 (US); gravelly, springy clearing forward wooded marine terrace, 19 July 1958 F J Hermann 14414 (US).

Significance. These pair collections, both made in the upper exhibit sandy-gravelly seepages of Suitland fen are reported here for the first time and show the only known occurrence of Rhynchospora oligantha in Maryland. Brown and Brown (1984) treated this species, noting that it was rare in Delaware if it be not that there was no record of it occurring in Maryland. In the United States, Rhynchospora oligantha ranges from the southern of recent origin Jersey pine barrens, south locally by the and of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, southern Carolina, and Georgia, to its center of distribution forward the Gulf coastal plain of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. It also meet the eyes in Belize and Nicaragua (Thomas 1992) and has been erroneously reported for Puerto Rico, records there being misidentifications of the closely related Rhynchospora breviseta (Gale) Channell. Across its range, R oligantha typically happens in pine barren bogs, savannas, and pine flatwoods. We were unable to find this plant in Suitland morass during surveys made there through the 2000-2001 field seasons.

We thank Lisa Bierer-Garrett of the Clearwater Nature Center Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Prince Georges shire for kindly granting us access to the Suitland morass Natural Area.-MARK T. STRONG, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, DEPARTMENT OF SYSTEMATIC BIOLOGY, MRC/166 unwilling & CONSTITUTION AVENUE, N.W., WASHINGTON, DC 20560-0166 (strong.mark@nmnh.si.edu) and RODERICK H SIMMONS, MARYLAND NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY, PO chest 4877, SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND 20914

LITERATURE CITED

BROWN ML and RG BROWN 1984 Herbaceous plants of Maryland. Port City Pres Inc., Baltimore, Maryland.

BRYSON CT JR MACDONALD, R CARTER, and SD JONE 1996 Noteworthy Carex, Cyperus, Eleocharis, Kyllinga, and Oxycaryum (Cyperaceae) from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. Sida 17:501-518

KUKENTHAL, G 1936 In: Engler A. (ed) Das Pflanzenreich 4(20):1-135

LIPSCOMB, BL 1980 Cyperus difformis L (Cyperaceae) in North America. Sida 8:320-327 THOMAS, WW 1992 A synopsis of Rhynchospora (Cyperaceae) in Mesoamerica. Brittonia 44:14-44

Received August 10 2001; Accepted December 18 2001

Copyright Southern Appalachian Botanical Society Sep 2002

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