Robust perennials up to 3 m tall, tufted, sometimes stoloniferous
Culms with aerial nodes
Leaves basal, up to 1.25 m long, eligulate; sheath with adaxial apex V-shaped; blade well developed, sometimes reduced and bract-like at nodes, with keeled midrib, profile V-shaped, margin and keel scabrid
Inflorescence a panicle ± 0.7 m long
Spikelets of 4-11 spirally imbricate glumes, lowest 3 or 4 empty
Perianth 0
Stamens 2
Style thickened at base, 3-branched
Nutlet brown, ovate, 3-angled, smooth, crowned with style base and continuous with it
x = 6, 10
Nomenclature:
Cladium P.Browne
Browne: 114 (1756)
Kunth: 303 (1837)
Clarke: 291 (1898)
Clarke: 484 (1902)
Schonland: 62 (1922)
Podlech: 6 (1967)
Gordon-Gray: 111 (1972)
Bond & Goldblatt: 38 (1984)
Gordon-Gray: 44 (1995)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 4, ± cosmopolitan in warm areas but largely Australia
Southern Africa: 1 subsp.: Cladium mariscus (L.) Pohl subsp. jamaicense (Crantz) Kük., occurring in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and the coasts of KwaZulu-Natal, 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
BROWNE, P. 1756. The civil and natural history of Jamaica in three parts. Published by the author, London
CLARKE, C.B. 1898. Cyperaceae. Flora capensis 7
CLARKE, C.B. 1902. Cyperaceae. Flora of tropical Africa 8
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
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
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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