Leaves eligulate; sheath closed, adaxial apex n-shaped to truncate; blade short below to well developed above, linear, flat, with keeled midrib, profile V-shaped, keel and margins scabrid
Inflorescence capitate to bisanthelate; subtending bracts erect
Spikelets few to many, many-flowered; glumes spirally arranged
Perianth (0-)6, when present, of bristles
Stamens 3, crested
Style linear, base persistent, branches 3
Nutlet obovate, biconvex or 3-angled, smooth
x = 13 (aneuploids, polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Bolboschoenus (Asch.) Palla
Palla: 2531 (1905)
Browning & Gordon-Gray: 380 (1992)
Gordon-Gray: 25 (1995)
Scirpus L. in part
Thunberg: 17 (1794)
Schrader: 29 (1832)
Kunth: 157 (1837)
Clarke: 210 (1898)
Clarke: 446 (1902)
Podlech: 44 (1967)
Gordon-Gray: 109 (1972)
Forbes: 59 (1987)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 11, widespread in Old and New World
Southern Africa: Species 3, mainly along the coasts of N KwaZulu-Natal, Western and Eastern Cape, and sporadically at low altitudes inland
References:
BROWNING, J. & GORDON-GRAY, K.D. 1992. Studies in Cyperaceae in southern Africa. 19: The genus Bolboschoenus. South African Journal of Botany 58
CLARKE, C.B. 1898. Cyperaceae. Flora capensis 7
CLARKE, C.B. 1902. Cyperaceae. Flora of tropical Africa 8
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
THUNBERG, C.P. 1794. Prodromus plantarum capensium. Edman, Uppsala.
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