Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants - Online edition

Thoracostachyum sumatranum (Miq.) Kurz


Grass
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Flowers. © CSIRO
Inflorescence. © CSIRO
Inflorescence. © CSIRO
Scale bar 10mm. © CSIRO
Family

Kurz, W.S. (1869) Journal Asiatic Society Bengal 38: 75.

Common name

Saw sedge; Saw grass

Stem

Flowers and fruits as a shrub about 1-2 m tall.

Leaves

Leaf blades more than 100 cm long and about 1.5-2 cm wide, margins armed with numerous small silicified teeth which can cut the skin. Leaf apex aristate, the tip about 10 cm long, toothed on the margin and +/- 3-sided. Leaf blade channelled on the upper surface.

Flowers

Inflorescence about 6 x 10 cm, terminal on a peduncle about 70 cm long. Inflorescence subtended by bracts of which the lowest one is the largest and is pale towards the base and aristate at the apex. Flowers very small, densely packed, each subtended by a bract. Perianth about 3 mm long. Staminal filaments about 0.5 mm long, anthers about 1.5-2 mm long. Style about 1.5-2 mm long. Stigmas three, papillose.

Fruit

Features not available.

Seedlings

Features not available.

Distribution and Ecology

Occurs in NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range very small, from near sea level to 20 m. Grows in swampy rain forest. Also occurs in Malesia.

Synonyms
Mapania sumatrana (Miq.) Benth., Flora Australiensis 7: 341(1878). Lepironia sumatrana Miq., Flora van Nederlandsch Indie (Sumatra) 3: 604(1861), Type: Teysmann s.n.; Sumatra: Lampong Distr.: Ipil, Batang Lekko.
RFK Code
3247
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