Small Spike Rush

Eleocharis minima Kunth, Enum. PI. 2: 139. 1837
Chaetocypenis viviparus Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2': 93. 1842. (Brazil.) Not Eleocharis vivi-
para Link, 1827. Chaetocypenis polymorphus Lindl. & Nees; Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2^: 94. 1842, in large part.
(Brazil?) _ , ^
Chaetocypenis Jamesoni Steud. Syn. Cyp. 74. 1855. (Ecuador.) Isolepis ambigua Steud. Syn. Cyp. 91. 1855. (Brazil.) Eleocharis bicolor Chapm. Fl. S. U. S. 517. 1860. (Florida.) Heleocharis tenuissima Bock. Linnaea 36: 419. 1870. Heleocharis subtilis Bock. Linnaea 36: 426. 1870. (Brazil.)
Heleocharis Wrightiana Bock. Beitr. Cyp. 1 : 12. 1888. (Cuba.) ,, ^ . , ,,
Eleocharis villaricensis Maury; M. Micheli, Mem. Soc. Phys. Hist. Nat. Geneve 31(1)^: 138.
1889. (Paraguay.) ^ ^. ^
Heleocharis Durandii Bock. Allg. Bot. Zeitschr. 2: 34. 1896. (Costa Rica.) Eleocharis Jamesonii N. E. Brown, Kew Bull. 1921 : 356. 1921. Eleocharis savannariim Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 48: 327. 1922. (Trinidad.) Eleocharis oropiichensis Britton, Bull. Torrey Club 48: 327. 1922. (Trinidad.) Heleocharis minima var. /3 ambigua Kiikenth. Repert. Sp. Nov. 23: 194. 1926. Eleocharis uncialis Chapm.; Small, Man. SE. Fl. 163. 1933. (Florida.) Eleocharis minima var. bicolor Svenson, Rhodora 39: 219. 1937.
Dwarf, 3-7 cm. tall, cespitose, with numerous whitish, elongated fibrous roots ; culms capillary, often recurving, quadrangular-sulcate, light green, punctate; sheaths conspicuous, light or dark brown, the apex inflated, blunt, hyaline ; spikelets 2-4 mm. long, ovate, fewto many-flowered; scales ovate-lanceolate, mostly acute, dark brown with greenish midrib and hyaline margin; style trifid; achene ovate, 0.75-1.0 mm. long, sharply triangular (biconvex in var. bicolor) with convex faces, whitish to pale or olivaceous-brown, lightly reticulate to minutely striate, narrowed at the apex and base, capped by a brownish or gray, shortpyramidal, obtuse style-base; bristles inconspicuous, transparent-white, obscurely toothed, shorter than the achene, often greatly reduced.
Type locality : Brazil.
Distribution: Florida, Georgia, Texas, California; Mexico; Costa Rica; San Salvador; Cuba ; Jamaica ; tropical South America.