Schoenus L.
Infl. paniculate, or capitate, or a solitary spikelet. Spikelets 1–4-fld, sessile or stalked, fls hermaphrodite, or the uppermost functionally male; rhachilla flexuous or zig-zag between the fls; glumes distichous, keeled, us. nerveless except for a central midrib, some lower glumes and some upper ones often empty. Hypog. bristles 6–1, plumose or ciliate, us. scabrid; or 0. Stamens 3, occ. 2. Style-branches 3, occ. 2. Nut ± trigonous, angles ± thickened. Perennial herbs, with or without creeping rhizomes, or rarely annual. Culms erect, curved, or drooping and rooting below, terete or compressed, branched or unbranched. Lvs basal or cauline, narrow-linear, setaceous and rigid, or flaccid, margins of lamina us. slightly toothed; or all, or the basal lvs reduced to sheathing, us. mucronate bracts. About 100 spp. of temperate regions. Of the 8 N.Z. spp., 2 are endemic; the other 6 occur in Australia as well and 3 of these are recorded from elsewhere in the Pacific.
SYNOPSIS
- A.
- Lvs reduced to sheaths or occ. the uppermost with a short, erect lamina. Spikelets long-stalked. Infl. a narrow terminal panicle:
- 1. brevifolius, 2. tendo, 3. carsei, 4. pauciflorus
- B.
- Lvs with well-developed laminae. Spikelets on short stalks or sessile. Infl. fascicled, umbellate, or occ. a solitary spikelet
- (a)
- Infl. compact, a single head of sessile spikelets or a solitary spikelet. Plants rhizomatous:
- 5. nitens
- (b)
- Infl. lax, of 2 or more separated fascicles or umbels of several spikelets, or of 1–3 spikelets, in the axils of several uppermost lvs on each culm. Plants not rhizomatous:
- 6. apogon, 7. maschalinus, 8. fluitans
Key
Plants flower between October and January and fr. is shed from December to February and up to May.
The genus was revised by Kükenthal in Fedde Repert. Spec. nov. Regn. veg. 44, 1938, 1–32 et passim, and 48, 1940, 246–250.
