Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Cyperus haspan subsp. juncoides (Lam.) Kuk.


Grass
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Herbarium specimen. © DERM
Family

Kukenthal, G. (1926) Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 23: 184.

Stem

Rhizome creeping so that the culms are solitary. Culms strongly triquetrous, up to 100 cm tall.

Leaves

Leaves mostly reduced to bladeless sheaths 2-10 cm long, slightly septate-nodulose, 2-5 mm wide.

Flowers

Inflorescence compound with 5-20 primary branches up to 15 cm long; digitate clusters to ca. 20 mm diam.; involucral bracts large and leaf-like, 1 slightly longer than inflorescence. Spikelets flattened, 3-10 per cluster, 5-10 x 1-2 mm, 10-35 -flowered; rachilla visible between the glumes. Glumes obtuse with prominent green 3-nerved midrib, 1-1.8 mm long

Fruit

Nut trigonous, broadly obovoid, less than half as long as the glume, 0.4-0.8 x 0.3-0.4 mm long, whitish to pale yellow brown.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

A Pantropical species, occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and south to New South Wales. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 920 m. Grows along streams in rainforest, in Melaleuca-pandanus swamps and well watered places in various types of woodland.

Synonyms
Cyperus juncoides Lam., Tableau Encyclopédique et Methodique .. Botanique 1: 147(1791), Type: North America.
RFK Code
4202
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