Perennials, somewhat wiry, tufted, sometimes very robust
Culms
with aerial or basal nodes
Leaves
basal or basal and cauline, ligulate or eligulate; sheath conspicuous, adaxial apex n-shaped, truncate or V-shaped; blade flat to ± cylindric, or 0, with or without keeled midrib, profile V-shaped or crescentiform
Inflorescence
capitate or paniculate, of several to many spikelets; subtending bracts foliose (sometimes short)
Spikelets
usually bisexual; glumes usually 2-ranked, occasionally somewhat spiral, 4-9 basal glumes empty, followed by 1-4 with male florets, followed by 1 fertile bisexual one, with or without 1 empty glume at apex
Perianth
various or 0, when present, of barbate bristles
Stamens
3(4, 6, 8); anthers crested, often auriculate at base
Style
dilated and scabrous at base, 3 or 4(6-9)-branched
Nutlet
obovoid, 3(4)-angled, smooth or hairy, usually crowned with persistent style base
Classification Notes:
As currently defined the genus is rather unnatural
Nomenclature:
Tetraria
P.Beauv.
Beauvois: 54 (1816)
Clarke: 275 (1898)
Clarke: 759 (1900)
Clarke: 485 (1902)
Schonland: 58 (1922)
Kükenthal: 195 (1940) as subgen.
Eutetraria
(C.B.Clarke) Kük.
LESTIBOUDOIS, T.G. 1819.
Essai sur la famille de Cypéracées
. Didot jeune, Paris
LEVYNS, M.R. 1947.
Tetraria
and related genera, with special reference to the flora of the Cape Peninsula.
Journal of South African Botany
13
LEVYNS, M.R. 1950.
Cyperaceae
. In R.S. Adamson & T.M. Salter,
Flora of the Cape Peninsula
. Juta, Cape Town
NEES VON ESENBECK, C.G. 1834.
Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal
17
NEES VON ESENBECK, C.G. 1835. Uebersicht der Cyperaceengattungen.
Linnaea
9
PALISOT DE BEAUVOIS, A.M.F.J. 1816.
Tetraria
.
Mémoires de la classe des sciences mathématiques et physiques de l'Institut National de France
13(2) (1812)
SCHONLAND, S. 1922. Introduction to South African
Cyperaceae
.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 3
THUNBERG, C.P. 1794.
Prodromus plantarum capensium
. Edman, Uppsala
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