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

Cyperaceae - Caricoideae - Schoeneae - Schoenus L.

Description :

  • Perennials, glabrous, tufted
  • Culms with basal nodes
  • Leaves basal, ligulate; sheath with adaxial apex V-shaped; blade setaceous, without keeled midrib, profile thickly crescentiform
  • Inflorescence capitate; subtending bracts 2, erect, lower with base expanded, blade leaf-like
  • Spikelet of 6-10, 2-ranked floral bracts, lowest 4-7 bracts empty, upper 1-3 fertile, bisexual, terminal ones with male florets or empty; fertile axis elongate, flexuose, exposing nutlets in excavations or hollows
  • Perianth of 3-5 minute bristles
  • Stamens 3
  • Style linear, sometimes base slightly swollen, 3-branched
  • Nutlet white, sessile or stalked, ellipsoid, 3-angled or anterior angle rounded, smooth
  • x = 11 (9) (aneuploids, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Schoenus L.
    • Linnaeus: 42 (1753)
    • Clarke: 271 (1898)
    • Clarke: 483 (1902)
    • Schonland: 57 (1922)
    • Levyns: 120 (1950)
    • Bond & Goldblatt: 45 (1984)
    • Gordon-Gray: 171 (1995)
  • Chaetospora R.Br. in part
    • Kunth: 323 (1837)
    • Boeckeler: 290 (1874)
  • Elynanthus (P.Beauv.) T.Lestib. in part
    • Nees: 186 (1836)
    • Kunth: 309 (1837)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 100, widespread but mainly Australia
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Schoenus nigricans L., Western and Eastern Cape, occasional in Mpumalanga and S KwaZulu-Natal

References:

  • BOECKELER, J.O. 1874. Die Cyperaceen des Königlichen Herbariums zu Berlin. Linnaea 38
  • BOND, P. & GOLDBLATT, P. 1984. Plants of the Cape Flora: A descriptive catalogue. Journal of South African Botany Suppl . Vol. 13
  • CLARKE, C.B. 1898. Cyperaceae . Flora capensis 7
  • CLARKE, C.B. 1902. Cyperaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 8
  • GORDON-GRAY, K.D. 1995. Cyperaceae in Natal. Strelitzia 2
  • KUNTH, C.S. 1837. Enumeratio plantarum 2. J.G: 309, 323. Cotta, Stuttgart & Tübingen
  • LEVYNS, M.R. 1950. Cyperaceae . In R.S. Adamson & T.M. Salter, Flora of the Cape Peninsula . Juta, Cape Town
  • LINNAEUS, C. 1753. Species plantarum . Laurentius Salvius, Stockholm
  • NEES VON ESENBECK, C.G. 1836. Cyperaceae Capenses secundum novissimas Ecklonii collectiones. Linnaea 10
  • SCHONLAND, S. 1922. Introduction to South African Cyperaceae . Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 3