Flora of the Southeastern United States

Fimbristylis perpusilla R.M. Harper ex Small & Britton. Common name: Harper's Fimbry. Phenology: Jul-Sep. Habitat: Drawdown zones of natural depression ponds or exposed banks of blackwater or brownwater rivers. The species characteristically occurs on dry to moist banks exposed in summer by falling water levels, often with other diminutive annuals, such as Cyperus subsquarrosus, Edrastima uniflora, Juncus repens, Lindernia dubia, Eleocharis baldwinii, and Eragrostis hypnoides. At known locations it does not appear every year; presumably it is present in a seedbank which germinates only under favorable hydrologic (and other?) conditions. Distribution: The "range" consists of geographically scattered and "irregularly apparent" populations, usually on the drawdown zones of natural ponds or rivers, in the Coastal Plain from DE and e. MD south through e. VA, se. NC, and ne. SC, to sw. GA and AL, disjunct in the Cumberland Plateau of se. TN (Wofford & Jones 1988) and KY (Boone & Chester 2009). See Leonard (1981a, 1981b, 1987) for the first reports of the species in SC and NC and Diamond (2016b) for the first report in AL.

Origin/Endemic status: Endemic

Synonymy ⓘ: = C, FNA23, GW1, K4, NS, POWO, S, S13, Tn, Va, Kral (1971); = n/a — RAB. Basionym: Fimbristylis perpusilla R.M.Harper ex Small & Britton 1903

Links to other floras: = Fimbristylis perpusilla - FNA23

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Wetland Indicator Status:

• Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain: OBL
• Eastern Mountains and Piedmont: OBL

Heliophily ⓘ: 9