Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Cyperus pilosus Vahl


Grass
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Herbarium specimen. © CSIRO
Family

Vahl, M.H. (1805) Enumeratio Plantarum 2: 354. Type: Habitat in India orientali.

Common name

Fuzzy flatsedge

Stem

Rhizomatous annual or short-lived perennial; culms solitary, triquetrous and winged in the upper part, 7-120 cm tall

Leaves

Leaves shorter to as long as the culms, 4-12 mm wide; leaf sheath with prominent thick and raised midrib on abaxial surface, withering without disintegrating into fibers.

Flowers

Inflorescence with 3-10 primary branches which are up to 15 cm long; involucral bracts leaf-like, 3-5, much longer than the inflorescence; spikes ovoid to cylindrical, 2-3 cm long; rachis densely pilose. Spikelets flattened, 6-25 per spike, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, 7-40 -flowered. Glume with 2 prominent veins on either side of the slightly thickened keel, 2-2.5 mm long, with broad whitish margins in upper part.

Fruit

Nut rhomboid to ovate, triquetrous, apiculate with a smooth testa, about ½- length of glume, dark brown to black.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NT, NEQ, CEQ and south to northern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 950 m. Grows in rainforest, mesophyll and notophyll vine forest, Melaleuca swamps and along rivers and creeks. Also from Africa, Malesia, Asia to Japan.

Natural History & Notes

Becomes a weed iof cultivation (Koyama 1979).

RFK Code
4204
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