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

Cyperaceae - Cyperoideae - Cypereae - Courtoisina Soják

Description :

  • Medium-sized annuals, forming small tufts; strong-smelling when dry (fenugreek odour - Goetghebeur 1986)
  • Culms with basal nodes
  • Leaves basal, eligulate; sheath with adaxial apex truncate; blade linear with keeled midrib, profile V-shaped
  • Inflorescence bisanthelate; subtending bracts up to 9, spreading
  • Spikes ± rounded; spikelet bracts several, spirally arranged
  • Spikelets ovate, 1-9-flowered, falling entire; glumes distichous, winged on keel, mucronate
  • Perianth 0
  • Stamens 3
  • Style 3-branched
  • Nutlet brown, linear-oblong, narrowed at base and apex, triangular, papillate

Classification Notes:

  • One of the species: Courtoisina cyperoides (Roxb.) Soják, is apparently represented by a subspecies (Vorster: 1978), for which there is as yet no combination in Courtoisina

Nomenclature:

  • Courtoisina Soják
    • Soják: 193 (1979)
    • Gordon-Gray: 209 (1995)
  • Courtoisia Nees
    • Nees: 261 (1834) not of Marchand
    • Clarke: 403 (1902)
    • Schonland: 32 (1922)
  • Mariscus Vahl in part
    • Podlech: 31 (1967)
    • Gordon-Gray: 123 (1995)
  • Cyperus L. subgen. Mariscus (Vahl) C.B.Clarke in part
    • Kükenthal: 402 (1936)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 2, India, Africa and Madagascar
  • Southern Africa : Species 2, occurring in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Free State and Northern Cape

References:

  • CLARKE, C.B. 1902. Cyperaceae . Flora of tropical Africa 8
  • GORDON-GRAY, K.D. 1995. Cyperaceae in Natal. Strelitzia 2
  • KÜKENTHAL, G. 1936. Cyperaceae - Scirpoideae - Cypereae . Das Pflanzenreich 101
  • NEES VON ESENBECK, C.G. 1834. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal 17
  • 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
  • SOJÁK, J. 1979. Fragmenta phytotaxonomica et nomenclatorica 2. Casinopsis narodniho musea Oddil Prirodovedny 148
  • VORSTER, P.J. 1978. Revision of the taxonomy of Mariscus Vahl and related genera in southern Africa . Unpublished D.Sc. thesis. University of Pretoria