Scleria
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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 sometimes annuals; rhizome when present elongate, or short and hardened, knotty or sometimes tuberous; culms erect, elongating and sprawling, or climbing, 3-angled, smooth to harshly scabrous, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves well developed at middle and upper nodes, the basal ones essentially bladeless; blades linear-elongate or sometimes lanceolate, flat to somewhat inrolled, 3-veined, herbaceous, weakly to harshly scabrous on margins and veins, glabrous or sometimes pubescent; sheaths 3-angled, closed at summit, distinctly veined, the apex of the inner band with a rounded, obtuse, or triangular contraligule with distinct, straight or anastomosing veins, the margins thickened or cartilaginous, sometimes with a short to elongate scarious appendage. Inflorescence paniculate or spikelike, terminal, or terminal and axillary; involucral bracts when present, leaflike, usually shorter than the cauline leaves; branches 3-angled, sometimes narrowly winged, scabrous or smooth; spikelets sessile or on pedicels to 1 cm long; staminate spikelets lanceolate or narrowly oblong, cylindrical or subflattened, many-flowered, the scales spirally imbricate; pistillate spikelets ovate to elliptic, cylindrical to subflattened, with 1 terminal flower usually subtended by a reduced scale, the scales 2-ranked, spreading with the developing achene. Flowers unisexual, staminate and pistillate flowers in the same, or more commonly in separate spikelets; hypogynium present or absent; stamens 1-3, the anthers appendaged at apex; styles capillary, 3-branched, the unbranched portion glabrous. Achenes globose, rarely 3-angled, rounded, ovoid to ellipsoid, apiculate, sometimes subconic, with straight to recurved apex, bony or crustaceous, white or sometimes variegated with purple, glabrous or pilose, the surface smooth, rugose, reticulate, trabeculate, papillate, verrucose, or warty; hypogynium (when present) borne at base of achene, sessile or stipitate, smooth or crustaceous, entire or 3-lobed, sometimes 3-9-tuberculate near base, the lobes entire or dissected, glabrous or ciliate along margins.