e-Key <span id="jodit_selection_marker_1710495416488_9883106578355849" data-jodit_selection_marker="start" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>v3 - Kyl<span id="jodit_selection_marker_1710495416488_7705862456890356" data-jodit_selection_marker="end" style="line-height: 0; display: none;"></span>linga
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Cyperaceae - Cyperoideae - Cypereae - Kyllinga Rottb.

Description:

  • Mainly perennials, tufted or long-rhizomatous, frequently lemon-scented
  • Culms with basal nodes
  • Leaves basal, eligulate; sheath with adaxial apex truncate; blade linear with keeled midrib, profile V-shaped
  • Inflorescence capitate, of 1-3 sessile spikes, sometimes proliferous; subtending bracts 3-6
  • Spikes ovoid or cylindric, dense
  • Spikelets many, of 4-7 distichous glumes, lowest 1 or 2 glumes empty, next 1 or 2 with bisexual, fertile florets, upper ones with male florets or empty; rachilla wingless, caducous by disarticulation from a cushion below lowest fertile floret
  • Perianth 0
  • Stamens 1-3
  • Style slender, 2-branched
  • Nutlet black or brown, ellipsoid or oblong, laterally compressed (i.e. with edge facing rachilla), smooth
  • x = 6, 8 (7, 9) (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Kyllinga Rottb.
    • Rottbøll: 12, t. 4 (1773) in part, name conserved
    • Clarke: 151 (1897)
    • Clarke: 268 (1901)
    • Schonland: 19 (1922)
    • Podlech: 29 (1967)
    • Gordon-Gray: 107 (1972)
    • Compton: 68 (1976)
    • Getliffe: 261 (1983)
    • Bond & Goldblatt: 44 (1984)
    • Forbes: 51 (1987)
    • Gordon-Gray: 111 (1995)
  • Cyperus L. subgen. Kyllinga (Rottb.) J.V.Suringar
    • Suringar: 42 (1898)
    • Kükenthal: 566 (1936)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global: Species ± 60, ± cosmopolitan in warm moist areas
  • Southern Africa: Species ± 13, widespread in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Northern, 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
  • CLARKE, C.B. 1897. Cyperaceae. Flora capensis 7
  • CLARKE, C.B. 1901. 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
  • GETLIFFE, F.M. 1983. Studies in Cyperaceae in southern Africa. The genus Kyllinga Rottb. Journal of South African Botany 49
  • 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
  • KÜKENTHAL, G. 1936. Cyperaceae - Scirpoideae - Cypereae. Das Pflanzenreich 101
  • PODLECH, D. 1967. Cyperaceae. Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 165
  • ROTTBØLL, C.F. 1773. Descriptionum et iconum rariores plantas. Typographical Society, Copenhagen
  • SCHONLAND, S. 1922. Introduction to South African Cyperaceae. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 3
  • SURINGAR, J.V. 1898. Het geslacht Cyperus. Leeuwarden

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