Scleria

• Authority

  Mori, S. A., et al. 1997. Guide to the vascular plants of central French Guiana: Part 1. Pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and monocotyledons. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-422.

• Family

  Cyperaceae

• Scientific Name

  Scleria

• Description

  Genus Description - Perennials or occasionally annuals, rhizomatous or caespitose; stems erect to occasionally scandent, 3-angled and scabrous on angles. Leaves mostly cauline and scabrous on margins and angles; sheath well-developed, occasionally winged, the contraligule well-developed and sometimes with a scarious appendage; blade usually linear-elongate, flat, 1-5-veined. Plants monoecious. Inflorescences paniculate or spicate. Flowers unisexual, the staminate and pistillate flowers found together or in separate spikelets; staminate spikelets lanceoloid; pistillate spikelets 1-flowered, ovoid to obovoid, often becoming distended as fruit matures, often in axils of lowest scale of staminate spikelet. Perianth absent; ovary and fruit subtended in most species by an often 3-lobed hypogynium with variable margins. Fruits achene-like, globose to ovoid, bony, smooth to verrucose or wrinkled, glabrous to puberulent, white or occasionally tinged purple.