White Beak Sedge and Brown Beak Sedge

White Beak Sedge and Brown Beak Sedge - Rhynchospora alba and Rhynchospora fusca  

These sedges are perennial herbaceous plants with limited development , resembling reeds, belonging to the Cyperaceae Family.

The White Beak Sedge is a bushy plant with characteristic spiked whitish inflorescences which flower from June to August.  The Brown Beak Sedge is a species which for a short time bears stolons, it can be distinguished for its brown-reddish spikes.

They have a circumboreal distribution and grow in acid wetlands.

Both are considered very rare species and under threat: in Tuscany the White Beak Sedge has been reported at Massaciuccoli, Lake Sibolla and the sphagnum bogs at Mount Pisano.

The Brown Beak Sedge has been reported in the past only at Lake Sibolla, but it has not been seen for some time now.