Scirpus
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Authority
Britton, Nathaniel L. & Millspaugh, Charles F. 1920. The Bahama Flora.
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Family
Cyperaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Genus Description - Annual or perennial very small or very large sedges, with leafy culms or the leaves reduced to basal sheaths. Spikelets terete or somewhat flattened, solitary, capitate, spicate or umbellate, subtended by a 1-several-leaved involucre or the involucre wanting in some species. Scales spirally imbricated all around, usually all fertile, the 1-3 lower sometimes empty. Flowers perfect. Perianth of 1-6, slender or rigid, short or elongated, barbed, pubescent or smooth bristles, or none in some species. Stamens 2-3. Style 2-3-cleft, not swollen at the base, wholly deciduous from the achene, or its base persistent as a subulate tip. Achene triangular, lenticular or plano-convex. [Latin name of the Bulrush, said to be from sirs, the Celtic word for rushes.] About 200 species of very wide geographic distribution. Type species: Scirpus lacustris L.