Fimbristylis
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Cyperaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Perennials or annuals, rhizomatous or tufted with fibrous roots; culms cylindrical, or subcompressed to flattened, finely to coarsely ribbed, smooth, glabrous. Leaves basal; blades flat or inrolled, sometimes folded, narrowly linear to filiform, glabrous or pubescent, the margins smooth or scabrous; sheaths eligulate or ligulate, glabrous or pubescent, closed at summit, splitting with age, the apex entire. Inflorescence an open, simple or compound umbel-like cyme or sometimes a headlike cluster with congested spikelets; involucral bracts leaflike, usually smaller than the leaves, rarely overtopping the inflorescence; rays (and raylets when present) unequal, slender, finely ribbed, cylindrical to subflattened, smooth or scabrous; spikelets ovate, oblong-ovate, subglobose, or lanceolate, borne singly at ray tips or sometimes clustered, many-flowered; scales spirally imbricate, occasionally somewhat 2-ranked, ovate to oblong-ovate, obtuse to acute, 1-5-nerved, glabrous or pubescent, fertile except for the lowermost one. Flowers bisexual; bristles absent; stamens 1- 3, the anthers oblong, sometimes apiculate; styles 2- or 3-branched, the unbranched portion flattened and fimbriate on margins (2- branched style) or slender, 3-angled basally, and glabrous (3-branched style), disarticulating from the summit of the achene. Achenes 2-sided or 3-angled, obovate, elliptic-obovate, or oblong, smooth, reticulate, verrucose, or warty; bristles absent.
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Distribution
A genus of approximately 200 species in warm-temperate and tropical regions worldwide, with the center of diversity in southeastern Asia.
Asia|