Description
provided by Flora of Zimbabwe
Annual or perennial herbs, usually most abundant in wet places. Culms usually triangular, usually solid. Leaves: alternate, usually 3-ranked, simple, grass-like or reduced to sheaths; sheath usually closed;
ligule usually 0; lamina usually linear or setaceous.
Inflorescence consisting of numerous spikelets, usually arranged in an anthela or panicle, often ± umbellate and subtended by
leaf-like bracts. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, arising
in the axils of a single bract (glume) without a bracteole,
or in tribe Cariceae, the female flowers surrounded by a closed
utricle. Glumes usually spirally arranged in
1-many-flowered spikelets. Perianth (only present in the tribes
Scirpeae and Rhynchosporeae) consisting of 3-6 (rarely more)
hairs, bristles or scales, in other tribes 0. Stamens (1-)2-3;
anthers basifixed. Ovary superior, 1-locular
with 1 erect ovule. Style simple; stigmas 2 or 3. Fruit a 1-seeded
nut, biconvex or trigonous. Seeds free from the
pericarp.
- license
- cc-by-nc
- copyright
- Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten and Petra Ballings
- bibliographic citation
- Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T. and Ballings, P. (2002-2014). Cyperaceae Flora of Zimbabwe website. Accessed 28 August 2014 at http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/family.php?family_id=69
- author
- Mark Hyde
- author
- Bart Wursten
- author
- Petra Ballings