Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Cyperus zollingeri Steud.


Grass
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Herbarium specimen. © DERM
Family

Steudel, E.G. von (1854) Synopsis Plantarum Glumacearum 2(7): 17. Type: Hrbr. Zollinger nr. 2689 Java.

Stem

Annual, stems up to 40 cm tall, trigonous to triquetrous with thin fibrous roots.

Leaves

Leaves shorter than the inflorescence, 1-2.5 mm wide, ligule well-developed, stems at base with papery sheaths; scabrid towards the top

Flowers

Inflorescence simple, loose, peduncle with a spike of spikelets, rays 1-3; involucral bracts erect to almost patent and greatly exceeding the inflorescence, rachilla broadly winged; spikelets pale brown, slightly compressed, linear, 16-60 mm, axis broadly winged; glume 8-nerved and with a green keel, 2.7-3.5 mm long.

Fruit

Nut trigonous with a depressed apex, light brown to reddish brown, sometimes black, 1.3-1.5 mm long.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in WA, NT, CYP, NEQ and CEQ. Altitudinal range from near sea level to 580 m. Grows in low forest, monsoon forest, deciduous notophyll vine thicket and moist places in various types of woodland. Also from Africa, Madagascar, Asia to New Guinea.

RFK Code
4208
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