Cyperus involucratus |
Cyperus seslerioides |
|
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umbrella flatsedge, umbrella-plant |
Texas flatsedge |
|
Habit | Herbs, perennial, cespitose, rhizomatous. | Herbs, perennial, cespitose; rhizomes knotty, much branched, 2–5 mm diam., scaly. |
Culms | trigonous, 30–150 cm × 1–5(–8) mm. |
roundly trigonous, basally with dark fibrous remnants of old leaf sheaths, (0.5–)4–30 cm × 0.4 –1.1 mm, glabrous. |
Leaves | bladeless. |
1–5, flat, involute toward apex, 3–18 cm × 1–2.5(–3) mm. |
Inflorescences | heads digitate, 15–30(–36) mm diam.; rays (14–)20–22, (2–)5–12(–20) cm; 2d order rays 0.3–3(–4) cm; 3d order rays sometimes present, 0.3–2.5 cm; bracts (4–)18–22, ± horizontal, flat, 15–27 cm × (1.5–)8–12 mm. |
heads hemispheric to spheric, (3–)6–15(–24) mm diam.; rays absent; bracts 2–5, horizontal to reflexed, parallel to culm, 1–13 cm × 1–3 mm, margins and keel sparsely minutely scabridulous distally. |
Spikelets | 8–20, ovoid to linear-lanceoloid, compressed, 5–25 × 1.5–2 mm; floral scales 8–28, laterally whitish or light brown, ± hyaline, medially light brown, laterally ribless, medially 3-ribbed, 2-keeled in proximal 30–60%, deltate-ovate, 1.6–2.4 × (1–)1.2–1.5(–1.7) mm, apex acute. |
(5–)20–60(–100), whitish to greenish or brownish, ovoid to oblong-lanceoloid, compressed, 3–7 × 2–4 mm; floral scales (8–)10–12(–24), laterally milky white (infrequently yellowish, pale greenish, brown, or bronze-white), medially green or white, laterally ribless, medially 3-ribbed, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 1.6–3(–3.4) × 0.8–1.3 mm, apex mucronate to acuminate. |
Flowers | stamens 3; anthers 0.7–1 mm; styles 0.5–1 mm; stigmas 0.6–1 mm. |
stamens 3; anthers linear, (0.4–)0.6–0.8(–1.1) mm, connective not prolonged; styles 0.8–1.8 mm; stigmas (0.5–)1–1.5(–2) mm. |
Achenes | brown, sessile or stipitate, broadly ellipsoid, 0.6–0.8 × 0.4–0.6 mm, stipe if present to 0.1 mm, apex obtuse, apiculate, surfaces puncticulate. |
brown to blackish, trigonous, broadly obovoid, 0.5–1 × 0.3–0.75 mm, base slightly stipelike, ± cuneate to rounded, apex apiculate, papillose. |
Cyperus involucratus |
Cyperus seslerioides |
|
Phenology | Fruiting early summer–fall. | Fruiting summer. |
Habitat | Damp, disturbed soils, ditches, stream banks | Seeps, damp meadows in montane forests |
Elevation | 0–100(–800) m (0–300(–2600) ft) | 1000–2000 m (3300–6600 ft) |
Distribution |
CA; FL; LA; TX; e Africa [Introduced in North America]
|
AZ; TX; Mexico; South America; Central America (Honduras) |
Discussion | Cyperus involucratus has been collected in New York (R. S. Mitchell and G. C. Tucker 1997). Cyperus involucratus is widely cultivated as a water plant in greenhouses and outdoors in warm-temperate or tropical climates. It has long been misidentified in the flora as C. alternifolius Linnaeus, an endemic of Madagascar (G. C. Tucker 1983). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|
Source | FNA vol. 23, p. 150. | FNA vol. 23, p. 157. |
Parent taxa | Cyperaceae > Cyperus > subg. Pycnostachys | Cyperaceae > Cyperus > subg. Pycnostachys |
Sibling taxa | ||
Name authority | Rottbøll: Descr. Pl. Rar., 22. (1772) | Kunth: in A. von Humboldt et al., Nov. Gen. Sp. 1: 209. (1816) |
Web links |