BOTANICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
SPECIES: Eleocharis rostellata | Beaked Spikerush 



GENERAL BOTANICAL CHARACTERISTICS : 
Beaked spikerush is a native, tufted perennial sedge with short, stout,
often ascending or nearly vertical rhizomes [4,13,21,26].  Roots are
shallow; in a New York fen, 65 percent or more of beaked spikerush roots
were in the top 4 inches (10 cm) of soil [30].  The flattened, wiry
culms are mostly 1.3 to 3.3 feet (0.4-1.0 m) long.  There are three
types of culms:  layering, which root at the tips upon contact with
moist soil, fertile, and sterile.  Spikes are 0.3 to 0.8 inches (0.8-2.0
cm) long and have many flowers [4,13,21,26].


RAUNKIAER LIFE FORM : 
   Hemicryptophyte


REGENERATION PROCESSES : 
Beaked spikerush regenerates vegetatively by sprouting and layering.  It
sprouts from short shallow rhizomes, and it has elongated layering culms
which arch to the ground and root in moist soil from the apical bulbil
[4,23,30,39].  Beaked spikerush does not have long creeping rhizomes so is
not as colonial as common spikerush [13,21].  More biomass is allocated
to reproduction on nutrient-poor sites than on more fertile sites [30].

Beaked spikerush also regenerates by seed [6,29].


SITE CHARACTERISTICS : 
Beaked spikerush is an obligate wetland species [28].  It occurs in many
types of alkaline wetlands including salt and brackish marshes, tidal
flats, alkaline seeps, bogs, stream margins, hot spring edges, and
swamps [12,13,21,23].  Beaked spikerush occurs near springs and seeps in
desert areas of the Southwest [24,39].  The depth to the water table
averages 2.2 inches (5.5 cm) for beaked spikerush sites in New York
[29].  In Ohio, beaked spikerush forms solid mats in meadows where the
water table is at or above the soil surface [8].  In northern Minnesota,
beaked spikerush occurs 4 inches (10 cm) above the water table in
spring-fen channels with peaty soil [10,11].

In a fen in New York, beaked spikerush occurs on wet minerotrophic
sites, nutrient-poor marl beds, and organic soils.  (Marl beds are soils
formed from calcium carbonate precipitates.)  Average soil pH for all
sites in New York was greater than 7.0 [30].  In the Minnesota
spring-fen, groundwater discharge from calcareous till maintains a pH
greater than 7.0 and calcium concentrations between 20 and 45 milligrams
per liter [10,11].  Brotherson [3] studied soil characteristics of a
common spikerush community in Utah in which beaked spikerush averaged
0.6 percent cover.  Soil pH averaged 7.7, soluble salts averaged 4,003
parts per million, and organic matter averaged 32.7 percent.  The
mineral fraction averaged 13 percent sand, 48 percent silt, and 39
percent clay [3].

Beaked spikerush occurs from sea level in Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific
coast salt marshes and tidal flats [13,16,23] to nearly 9,000 feet
(2,700 m) elevation in Colorado [6].  In Montana, it primarily occurs in
valley and foothill zones from 3,200 to 5,500 feet (915-1,675 m)
elevation [22].


SUCCESSIONAL STATUS : 
Facultative Seral Species

Beaked spikerush is an early colonizer of marl beds by seeding into wet
depressions [29.30].  After colonization, the marl sites in the
Byron-Bergen Swamp in western New York accumulate peat and gradually
become small hummocks dominated by beaked spikerush, needle beaksedge,
and moss.  These small hummocks succeed to either moss mats with tufted
bulrush or large hummocks with shrubs and northern white-cedar (Thuja
occidentalis), tamarack (Larix laricina), and eastern white pine (Pinus
strobus) [29].  Succession towards northern white-cedar communities is
accelerated by a decrease in the water table level [8].

Beaked spikerush remained in a Delaware marsh dominated by Olney
threesquare, saltmeadow cordgrass, and saltgrass for 20 years.  During
this time the marsh accumlated 4 inches (10 cm) of mud and debris [31].


SEASONAL DEVELOPMENT : 
Beaked spikerush generally flowers from July to September [21,26].  In
the Rocky Mountain region it flowers in July and August [4,22].

Related categories for Species: Eleocharis rostellata | Beaked Spikerush