Leaves basal and cauline, eligulate; sheath with adaxial apex truncate to V-shaped; blade linear, without keeled midrib, profile ± flat to crescentiform
Inflorescence an oblong, compressed panicle of many spikelets (inflorescence highly reduced with few spikelets in C. brevicaulis)
Spikelets of several to many subdistichous glumes, lowest 3 or 4 (or more) glumes empty, next with male or functionally male floret, then 1 bisexual fertile floret, uppermost glume sometimes appearing empty but in reality subtending bisexual floret (see Browning 1994)
Perianth of 5 or 6 slender bristles
Stamens 3
Style long, 3-branched
Nutlet brown, oblong-obovoid, trigonous, smooth, crowned with persistent pyramidal style base
Nomenclature:
Costularia C.B.Clarke
Clarke: 274 (1898)
Schonland: 58 (1922)
Kükenthal: 13 (1939a)
Kükenthal: 65 (1939b)
Gordon-Gray: 111 (1972)
Compton: 72 (1976)
Bond & Goldblatt: 39 (1984)
Browning: 653 (1994)
Tetraria P.Beauv. in part
Gordon-Gray: 187 (1995)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 19, Africa, Madagascar, Australia
Southern Africa: Species 1: Costularia natalensis C.B.Clarke, Mpumalanga, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal
References:
BOND, P. & GOLDBLATT, P. 1984. Plants of the Cape Flora: A descriptive catalogue. Journal of South African Botany Suppl. Vol. 13
BROWNING, J. 1994. Floret position in Costularia (Cyperaceae): a new interpretation. Nordic Journal of Botany 14
CLARKE, C.B. 1898. Cyperaceae. Flora capensis 7
COMPTON, R.H. 1976. Cyperaceae. Flora of Swaziland. Journal of South African Botany Suppl. Vol. 11
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. 1939a. Vorarbeiten zu einer Monographie der Rhynchosporoideae. IV. Feddes Repertorium 46
KÜKENTHAL, G. 1939b. Vorarbeiten zu einer Monographie der Rhynchosporoideae. V. Feddes Repertorium 46
SCHONLAND, S. 1922. Introduction to South African Cyperaceae. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 3
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