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

Cyperaceae - Cyperoideae - Cypereae - Lipocarpha R.Br.

Description :

  • Annuals or perennials, tufted, small or moderately robust
  • Culms erect, terete, glabrous, with basal nodes
  • Leaves basal, eligulate, glabrous; sheath short, with adaxial apex truncate; blade with or without keeled midrib, profile V-shaped or crescentiform
  • Inflorescence capitate, of 1-20 sessile spikes; subtending bracts 2-few, erect or spreading
  • Spikes ovoid, axes elongated; spikelet bracts many, spirally arranged, lowermost and uppermost frequently empty
  • Spikelets comprising an adaxial prophyll, with frequently 2 minute hyaline scales and a 1-flowered floret subtended by a glume; florets mostly bisexual, fertile, uppermost male or absent
  • Perianth 0
  • Stamens 1-3
  • Style linear or 0, branches 2 or 3, short, not dilated at base, deciduous
  • Nutlet narrowly oblong to broadly obovate to circular to 3-angled, papillate
  • x = 13 (8, 19, 23, 29) (aneuploids, polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

  • Lipocarpha R.Br.
    • Brown: 459 (1810) name conserved
    • Clarke: 265 (1898)
    • Clarke: 468 (1902)
    • Schonland: 53 (1922)
    • Gordon-Gray: 103 (1972)
    • Compton: 59 (1976)
    • Forbes: 53 (1987)
    • Goetghebeur & Van den Borre: 1 (1989)
    • Gordon-Gray: 120 (1995)
  • Hemicarpha Nees
    • Nees: 287 (1835)
    • Podlech: 27 (1967)
  • Rikliella J.Raynal
    • Raynal: 154 (1973)
  • Scirpus L. in part ( Scirpus hystrix not of Thunb.)
    • Clarke: 233 (1898)
    • Clarke: 459 (1902)
    • Podlech: 49 (1967)
  • Scirpus L. subgen. Chloroscirpus Cherm. ( Scirpus hystrix not of Thunb.)
    • Chermezon: 141 (1937)
  • Scirpus L. sect. Squarrosi Cherm.
    • Chermezon: 141 (1937)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 35, ± cosmopolitan in warm climates
  • Southern Africa : Species 6, widespread in Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State, Swaziland, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho

References:

  • BROWN, R. 1810. Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae 1. J. Johnson & Co., London
  • CHERMEZON, H. 1937. 29e famille - Cypéracées. Flore de Madagascar 141. Gouvernement Général de Madagascar, Tananarive
  • 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
  • GOETGHEBEUR, P. & VAN DEN BORRE, A. 1989. Studies in Cyperaceae 8. A revision of Lipocarpha , including Hemicarpha and Rikliella . Wageningen Agricultural University Papers 89-1
  • 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
  • NEES VON ESENBECK, C.G. 1835. Uebersicht der Cyperaceengattungen. Linnaea 9
  • PODLECH, D. 1967. Cyperaceae . Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika 165
  • RAYNAL, J. 1973. Notes cypérologiques . Contribution à la classification de la sous-famille des Cyperoideae . Adansonia , sér. 2, 13
  • SCHONLAND, S. 1922. Introduction to South African Cyperaceae . Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 3

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