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Compilation
Heleocharis capitata

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Filed as Eleocharis geniculata (L.) Roem. & Schult. [family CYPERACEAE]

Original material of Heleocharis capitata (L.)R.Br. [family CYPERACEAE]

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Name

Identification

Heleocharis capitata (L.)R.Br. [family CYPERACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by R. Gross, 1930 Scirpus not on sheet Not on Sheet [family CYPERACEAE ] Verified by Not on Sheet,

Flora

Entry for ELEOCHARIS capitata R. Br. [family CYPERACEAE]

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)

Flora of Tropical Africa

Reference Sources

Flora of Tropical Africa, Vol 8, page 264, (1902) Author: (By C. B. Clarke.)

ELEOCHARIS capitata R. Br. [family CYPERACEAE], Prodr. 225. —Kunth, Enum. ii. 150, excl. several syns.; Benth. in Hook. Niger Fl. 553; C. B. Clarke in Hook. f. Fl. Brit. Ind. vi. 627; and in Durand & Schinz, Conspect. Fl. Afr. v. 597, incl. var. β; Durand & Schinz, Études Fl. Congo, i. 299; Urban, Symb. Antill. ii. 66.

ELEOCHARIS setacea R. Br. [family CYPERACEAE], Prodr. 225, not the homonymous sp. 224; Kunth, Enum. ii. 156.

Scirpus capitatus [family CYPERACEAE], Linn. herb. partly; Vahl, Enum. ii. 250.

Heleocharis capitata Boeck. [family CYPERACEAE], in Linnæa, xxxvi. 461; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 124.

A glabrous annual. Stems tufted, 2–8 in. long, in Vogel's examples exceeding a foot. Spikelet 1, ovoid, lanceolate or cylindric, dense, dull greenish-red, usually 1/10– 1/4 in. long, in Vogel's examples 1/2 by 1/6 in. Glumes elliptic, obtuse, caducous from the lowest fertile glume upwards. Hypogynous bristles 7 or fewer, as long as the nut, ferruginous or red-brown, retrorse scabrid, or sometimes much depauperated, occasionally to a 6-notched small cup. Stamens 3–1. Style-branches 2. Nut 2/5 the length of the glume, obovoid, biconvex, smooth, shining black; style-base depressed conic, pallid.

Also in Australia and throughout America.

Senegal Upper Guinea Roger! Heudelot, 549! Perrottet, 198! 828! 830!Somaliland Nile Land Revoil, 137!Congo Lower Guinea Smith!Sierra Leone Upper Guinea Bagru River, Mann, 891!Liberia Upper Guinea Cape Palmas, Vogel, 7!

Distribution (external)

The hypogynous bristles, when reduced to a small 6-toothed cup, were called by Nees a disc. Kunth supposed that by “disc” Nees understood the obpyramidal 3- (or several-) toothed gynophore of Scleria and of many species of Fimbristylis. But the two discs are not homologous: the stamens are entirely within the “disc” of Eleocharis, entirely without the disc of Fimbristylis .