Culms
with basal nodes, terete or 3-angled, sometimes hollow with conspicuous transverse septa
Leaves
basal, ligulate or eligulate; sheath with adaxial apex truncate or V-shaped; blade usually 0
Inflorescence
pseudolateral, capitate or corymbose, sometimes proliferous; subtending bract appearing as a continuation of culm
Spikelets
few to many, of many spirally imbricate glumes; lowest 1 or 2 glumes sterile, upper bisexual, fertile, uppermost with male florets or empty
Perianth
of 0-6 bristles, smooth, retrorsely scabrid, or plumose
Stamens
3; filaments often persistent after anthers have fallen
Style
slender, elongate, passing gradually into ovary, 2- or 3-branched, deciduous or sometimes persistent
Nutlet
oblong or obovoid, biconvex or 3-angular, smooth or rugose
x = 7 (11) (aneuploids, high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Schoenoplectus
(Rchb.) Palla
Palla: 49 (1888) name conserved
Raynal: 537 (1976a)
Raynal: 119 (1976b)
Gordon-Gray: 153 (1995)
Pterolepis
Schrad.
Schrader: 30 (1832)
Scirpus
L. in part
Thunberg: 17 (1794)
Clarke: 210 (1898)
Clarke: 446 (1902)
Podlech: 44 (1967)
Gordon-Gray: 109 (1972)
Compton: 70 (1976)
Forbes: 59 (1987)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 50, widely distributed in tropical and temperate regions
Southern Africa
: Species ± 18, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape
References:
CLARKE, C.B. 1898.
Cyperaceae
.
Flora capensis
7
CLARKE, C.B. 1902.
Cyperaceae
.
Flora of tropical Africa
8
COMPTON, R.H. 1976.
Cyperaceae
. Flora of Swaziland.
Journal of South African Botany
Suppl. Vol. 11
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
PALLA, E. 1888. Über die Gattung
Scirpus
.
Verhandlungen der Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien
38
PODLECH, D. 1967.
Cyperaceae
.
Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika
165
RAYNAL, J. 1976a. Notes cypérologiques . Le genre
Schoenoplectus
. I. Sur quelques espèces Sud-Africaines.
Adansonia
sér. 2, 15
RAYNAL, J. 1976b. Notes cypérologiques . Le genre
Schoenoplectus
. II. L'Amphicarpie et la sect.
Supini
.
Adansonia
sér. 2, 16
THUNBERG, C.P. 1794.
Prodromus plantarum capensium
. Edman, Uppsala
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