e-Key v3 - Websteria
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Cyperaceae - Cyperoideae - Scirpeae - Websteria S.H.Wright

Description :

  • Perennial, submerged aquatics, rooted in mud
  • Culms up to 1 m long, nodose with internodes up to 250 mm long
  • Leaves cauline, eligulate; sheath conspicuous, adaxial apex truncate; blade 0
  • Inflorescence of compound-whorled branches, mostly sterile
  • Spikelets emergent, single, terminal on branches; glumes 2, ± 10 mm long, attenuated, lower empty, upper fertile; floret bisexual
  • Perianth of 6-11 barbate bristles, longer than nutlet
  • Stamens 3
  • Style 2-branched
  • Nutlet ovate, long-beaked, ± smooth

Nomenclature:

  • Websteria S.H.Wright
    • Wright: 135 (1887)
    • Hooper: 582 (1972)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 1: Websteria confervoides (Poir.) S.S.Hooper, tropical America, tropical Africa, Sri Lanka
  • Southern Africa : Okavango Swamps, Botswana, and presumed to be also in Caprivi, Namibia

References:

  • HOOPER, S.S. 1972. New taxa, names and combinations in Cyperaceae for the 'Flora of West Tropical Africa'. Kew Bulletin 26
  • WRIGHT, S.H. 1887. A new genus in Cyperaceae . Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 14