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

Cyperaceae - Cyperoideae - Scirpeae - Bolboschoenus (Asch.) Palla

Description :

  • Perennials, rhizomatous
  • Culms sharply 3-angled, nodose; bases swollen
  • Leaves eligulate; sheath closed, adaxial apex n-shaped to truncate; blade short below to well developed above, linear, flat, with keeled midrib, profile V-shaped, keel and margins scabrid
  • Inflorescence capitate to bisanthelate; subtending bracts erect
  • Spikelets few to many, many-flowered; glumes spirally arranged
  • Perianth (0-)6, when present, of bristles
  • Stamens 3, crested
  • Style linear, base persistent, branches 3
  • Nutlet obovate, biconvex or 3-angled, smooth
  • x = 13 (aneuploids, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Bolboschoenus (Asch.) Palla
    • Palla: 2531 (1905)
    • Browning & Gordon-Gray: 380 (1992)
    • Gordon-Gray: 25 (1995)
  • Scirpus L. in part
    • Thunberg: 17 (1794)
    • Schrader: 29 (1832)
    • Kunth: 157 (1837)
    • Clarke: 210 (1898)
    • Clarke: 446 (1902)
    • Podlech: 44 (1967)
    • Gordon-Gray: 109 (1972)
    • Forbes: 59 (1987)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 11, widespread in Old and New World
  • Southern Africa : Species 3, mainly along the coasts of N KwaZulu-Natal, Western and Eastern Cape, and sporadically at low altitudes inland

References:

  • BROWNING, J. & GORDON-GRAY, K.D. 1992. Studies in Cyperaceae in southern Africa. 19: The genus Bolboschoenus . South African Journal of Botany 58
  • CLARKE, C.B. 1898. Cyperaceae . Flora capensis 7
  • CLARKE, C.B. 1902. Cyperaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 8
  • FORBES, P.L. 1987. Cyperaceae . In T.K. Lowrey & S. Wright, The Flora of the Witwatersrand Vol. 1: The Monocotyledonae. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg
  • GORDON-GRAY, K.D. 1972. Cyperaceae . In J.H. Ross, The Flora of Natal. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 39
  • GORDON-GRAY, K.D. 1995. Cyperaceae in Natal. Strelitzia 2
  • KUNTH, C.S. 1837. Enumeratio plantarum 2. J.G. Cotta, Stuttgart & Tübingen
  • PALLA, E. 1905. In E. Hallier & A. Brand, Koch's Synopsis der deutschen und schweizer Flora 3
  • PODLECH, D. 1967. Cyperaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 165
  • SCHRADER, H.A. 1832. 1. Cyperaceae . Analecta ad floram Capensem . Dieterich, Göttingen
  • THUNBERG, C.P. 1794. Prodromus plantarum capensium . Edman, Uppsala.