Robust perennials up to 3 m tall, tufted, sometimes stoloniferous
Culms
with aerial nodes
Leaves
basal, up to 1.25 m long, eligulate; sheath with adaxial apex V-shaped; blade well developed, sometimes reduced and bract-like at nodes, with keeled midrib, profile V-shaped, margin and keel scabrid
Inflorescence
a panicle ± 0.7 m long
Spikelets
of 4-11 spirally imbricate glumes, lowest 3 or 4 empty
Perianth
0
Stamens
2
Style
thickened at base, 3-branched
Nutlet
brown, ovate, 3-angled, smooth, crowned with style base and continuous with it
x = 6, 10
Nomenclature:
Cladium
P.Browne
Browne: 114 (1756)
Kunth: 303 (1837)
Clarke: 291 (1898)
Clarke: 484 (1902)
Schonland: 62 (1922)
Podlech: 6 (1967)
Gordon-Gray: 111 (1972)
Bond & Goldblatt: 38 (1984)
Gordon-Gray: 44 (1995)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 4, ± cosmopolitan in warm areas but largely Australia
Southern Africa
: 1 subsp.:
Cladium mariscus
(L.) Pohl subsp.
jamaicense
(Crantz) Kük., occurring in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the coasts of KwaZulu-Natal, Western and Eastern Cape
References:
BOND, P. & GOLDBLATT, P. 1984. Plants of the Cape Flora: A descriptive catalogue.
Journal of South African Botany Suppl
. Vol. 13
BROWNE, P. 1756.
The civil and natural history of Jamaica in three parts
. Published by the author, London
CLARKE, C.B. 1898.
Cyperaceae
.
Flora capensis
7
CLARKE, C.B. 1902.
Cyperaceae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
8
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
PODLECH, D. 1967.
Cyperaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
165
SCHONLAND, S. 1922. Introduction to South African
Cyperaceae
.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 3
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