Eleocharis

  • Authority

    Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.

  • Family

    Cyperaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Eleocharis

  • Description

    Genus Description - Annual or perennial sedges. Culms simple, triangular, quadrangular, terete, flattened or grooved, the leaves reduced to sheaths or the lowest very rarely blade-bearing. Spikelets solitary, terminal, erect, several-many-flowered, rot subtended by an involucre. Scales concave, spirally imbricated all around. Perianth of 1-12 bristles, usually retrorsely barbed, or wanting in some species. Stamens 2-3. Style 2-cleft and achene lenticular or biconvex, or 3-eleft and achene 3-angled, but sometimes with very obtuse angles and appearing turgid. Base of the style persistent on the summit of the achene, forming a terminal tubercle. [Greek, referring to the growth of most of the species in marshy ground.] About 340 species, widely distributed. Type species: Scirpus palustris L.