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Cyperus

Cyperus
Family: Cyperaceae
Cyperus image
Sue Carnahan
  • 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 inventory project: Arizona Flora
Cyperus acuminatus
Media resource of Cyperus acuminatus
Map not
Available
Cyperus aggregatus
Media resource of Cyperus aggregatus
Map not
Available
Cyperus alternifolius
Media resource of Cyperus alternifolius
Map not
Available
Cyperus amabilis
Media resource of Cyperus amabilis
Map not
Available
Cyperus andinus
Media resource of Cyperus andinus
Map not
Available
Cyperus aristulatus
Media resource of Cyperus aristulatus
Map not
Available
Cyperus dentoniae
Media resource of Cyperus dentoniae
Map not
Available
Cyperus difformis
Media resource of Cyperus difformis
Map not
Available
Cyperus dipsaceus
Media resource of Cyperus dipsaceus
Map not
Available
Cyperus elegans
Media resource of Cyperus elegans
Map not
Available
Cyperus eragrostis
Media resource of Cyperus eragrostis
Map not
Available
Cyperus erythrorhizos
Media resource of Cyperus erythrorhizos
Map not
Available
Cyperus esculentus
Media resource of Cyperus esculentus
Map not
Available
Cyperus fendlerianus
Media resource of Cyperus fendlerianus
Map not
Available
Cyperus ferax
Media resource of Cyperus ferax
Map not
Available
Cyperus flavicomus
Media resource of Cyperus flavicomus
Map not
Available
Cyperus hemidrummondii
Media resource of Cyperus hemidrummondii
Map not
Available
Cyperus hermaphroditus
Media resource of Cyperus hermaphroditus
Map not
Available
Cyperus hypopitys
Media resource of Cyperus hypopitys
Map not
Available
Cyperus involucratus
Media resource of Cyperus involucratus
Map not
Available
Cyperus laevigatus
Media resource of Cyperus laevigatus
Map not
Available
Cyperus manimae
Media resource of Cyperus manimae
Map not
Available
Cyperus michelianus
Media resource of Cyperus michelianus
Map not
Available
Cyperus mutisii
Media resource of Cyperus mutisii
Map not
Available
Cyperus niger
Media resource of Cyperus niger
Map not
Available
Cyperus odoratus
Media resource of Cyperus odoratus
Map not
Available
Cyperus oxylepis
Media resource of Cyperus oxylepis
Map not
Available
Cyperus pallidicolor
Media resource of Cyperus pallidicolor
Map not
Available
Cyperus papyrus
Media resource of Cyperus papyrus
Map not
Available
Cyperus parishii
Media resource of Cyperus parishii
Map not
Available
Cyperus prolifer
Media resource of Cyperus prolifer
Map not
Available
Cyperus pygmaeus
Media resource of Cyperus pygmaeus
Map not
Available
Cyperus retroflexus
Media resource of Cyperus retroflexus
Map not
Available
Cyperus rotundus
Media resource of Cyperus rotundus
Map not
Available
Cyperus schweinitzii
Media resource of Cyperus schweinitzii
Map not
Available
Cyperus semiochraceus
Media resource of Cyperus semiochraceus
Map not
Available
Cyperus seslerioides
Media resource of Cyperus seslerioides
Map not
Available
Cyperus spectabilis
Media resource of Cyperus spectabilis
Map not
Available
Cyperus sphaerolepis
Media resource of Cyperus sphaerolepis
Map not
Available
Cyperus squarrosus
Media resource of Cyperus squarrosus
Map not
Available
Cyperus strigosus
Media resource of Cyperus strigosus
Map not
Available
Cyperus subsquarrosus
Media resource of Cyperus subsquarrosus
Map not
Available
Cyperus tetragonus
Media resource of Cyperus tetragonus
Map not
Available
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This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MG-70-19-0057-19].

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