EcoFlora - Cyperus

Cyperus
Family: Cyperaceae Max Licher	FNA Gleason & Cronquist Resources Gordon C. Tucker, Brian G. Marcks & J. Richard Carter * in Flora of North America (vol. 23) Herbs, perennial or less often annual, cespitose or not, rhizomatous, stoloniferous, rarely tuberous. Culms solitary or not, trigonous or round, glabrous or scabridulous with extrorse or antrorse (rarely retrorse) prickles. Leaves usually basal; ligules absent; blades keeled abaxially, flat, V-, or inversely W-shaped in cross section. Inflorescences terminal, rarely pseudolateral, 1st order subumbellate to capitate, 2d order with spicate or digitately arranged spikelets, rarely a solitary spikelet; spikelets 1-150; 1st order rays unequal (rarely equal) in length, produced singly from the axils of inflorescence bracts; involucral bracts 1-22, spirally arranged at culm apex, spreading to erect, leaflike. Spikelets: scales to 76, distichous, each subtending flower, cylindric to compressed, borne spicately or digitately at ends of rays (occasionally proliferous). Flowers bisexual [rarely unisexual], in axils of distichous floral scales, bases often decurrent onto rachilla as ± hyaline wings; perianth absent; stamens 1-3; styles linear, 2-3-fid, base deciduous or persistent; stigmas 2-3. Achenes biconvex, flattened, or trigonous. Vascular plants of NE US and adjacent Canada Scales distichous, the lowermost one empty and ±modified; fls perfect, each in the axil of a scale; perianth wanting; stamens 3, less often 1 or 2; style 2-3- cleft, the beakless (or nearly beakless) achene accordingly lenticular or ±trigonous; spikelets few-many in dense or loose spikes or heads, each subtended by 2 small bracts; spikes or heads commonly in a simple or compound terminal umbel that is subtended by sheathless, leafy invol bracts; each ray of the umbel surrounded at base by a tubular prophyll; herbs with solid, ±triangular stems, the lvs with closed sheath and usually an elongate, grasslike blade. 600+, cosmop. Our spp. belong to 5 subgenera, as in the following key. Spp. 14-22 and 23-28 appear to be intergradient, presumably reflecting extensive hybridization. Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp. ©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Species within checklist: Flora of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Region Two (IP) Cyperus acuminatus Map not Available Cyperus aggregatus Map not Available Cyperus croceus Map not Available Cyperus dentoniae Map not Available Cyperus difformis Map not Available Cyperus dipsaceus Map not Available Cyperus echinatus Map not Available Cyperus entrerianus Map not Available Cyperus erythrorhizos Map not Available Cyperus esculentus Map not Available Cyperus fendlerianus Map not Available Cyperus flavicomus Map not Available Cyperus haspan Map not Available Cyperus hystricinus Map not Available Cyperus iria Map not Available Cyperus lupulinus Map not Available Cyperus mutisii Map not Available Cyperus odoratus Map not Available Cyperus pallidicolor Map not Available Cyperus parishii Map not Available Cyperus pseudovegetus Map not Available Cyperus retroflexus Map not Available Cyperus retrorsus Map not Available Cyperus rotundus Map not Available Cyperus schweinitzii Map not Available Cyperus seslerioides Map not Available Cyperus setiger Map not Available Cyperus sphaerolepis Map not Available Cyperus squarrosus Map not Available Cyperus virens Map not Available Cyperus wrightii Map not Available