Skip Navigation
Sign In
  • Home
  • Search
    • Search Collections
    • Map Search
  • Chicago Botanic Garden
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Denver Botanic Gardens
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Desert Botanical Garden
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • NY Botanical Garden
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
    • Project Information
    • Checklists
    • Create a Checklist
    • Dynamic Key
  • Sitemap

Cyperus spectabilis

Cyperus spectabilis Link  
Family: Cyperaceae
Showy Flat Sedge, more...spectacular flatsedge
[Cyperus buckleyi Britt., moreCyperus mohrii]
Cyperus spectabilis image
  • FNA
  • SW Field Guide
  • Resources
Gordon C. Tucker*, Brian G. Marcks* & J. Richard Carter * in Flora of North America (vol. 23)
Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous. Culms trigonous, (12-)30-80(-90) cm × 0.7-1.7 mm, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves flat to V-shaped, 20-45 cm × 2-4 mm, margins and keel minutely scabridulous. Inflorescences: spike 1, loosely ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, (1.5-)2.5-7 × (1-)1.5-3.5 cm; rays 1-4, 1-15 cm; rachis 1-2 cm; bracts 2-4, oblique or ascending, 1-15(-24) cm × 0.4-3.5 mm, keel, margins scabrid; rachilla ± deciduous, wingless. Spikelets (3-)8-40, linear, compressed-quadrangular, 8-18 × (2.4-)2.8-4 mm; floral scales deciduous, (2-)4-12, laterally light brown to reddish brown, medially green or light brown, laterally 2-3-ribbed, oblong-ovate, 1.6-2.6 × (1.5-)1.6-2.2(-2.4) mm, apex obtuse, sometimes mucronulate, medially glabrous. Flowers: anthers 0.4-0.6 mm; styles 0.3-0.6 mm; stigmas 0.6-1 mm. Achenes brownish, stipitate, ellipsoid, 1.6-2 × (0.7-)0.9-1 mm, stipe whitish, 0.1-0.2 mm, apex obtuse, slightly apiculate, surfaces papillose.

Fruiting summer. Arroyos, riverbanks, clearings in montane forests; 100-1300 m; Ariz., Tex.; Mexico.
Tucker 1994, FNA 2002
Common Name: spectacular flatsedge Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Graminoid General: Rhizomatous perennial forming small clumps from rhizomes 1-5 cm long, 2-5 mm in diameter, covered with fibrous brown scale remnants, stems 30-80 cm tall, stems 1-2 mm in diameter, three sided, smooth. Vegetative: Leaves 3-5, 20-45 cm long, 2-4 mm wide, flat to v-shaped, margins and keel rough. Inflorescence: Subtending bracts 2-4, 1-15 cm long, 0.5-3.5 mm wide, v-shaped, keel and margins scabrous, borne generally horizontally; rays 10-4, 1-15 cm long, spikes 2.5-7 cm long, 1.5-3.5 cm wide, loosely ovoid to ovoid-ellipsoid, rachis 10-30 mm long, 8-40 spikelets, 8-18 mm long, 2.8-4 mm wide, linear, compressed-quadrate, deciduous rachilla, flat, greenish to whitish or straw colored, 4-12 deciduous scales, 1.5-2.5 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, oblong-ovate, obtuse to sometimes spine tipped apex, light brown to reddish brown; achenes three sided, 1.5-2 mm long, ellipsoid, slightly apiculate to obtuse, whitish, faces slightly concave, surface papillose, dark brown to black. Ecology: Found along arroyos and riverbanks and in clearings in montane forests from 4,000-5,500 ft (1219-1676 m); flowers July-September. Notes: Very similar to C. manimae, distinguished by the lax spikes that are usually borne on rays. Ethnobotany: Unknown Etymology: Cyperus is from the Greek word meaning sedge, while spectabilis means spectacular. Synonyms: Cyperus buckleyi Editor: SBuckley, 2010
Cyperus spectabilis
Open Interactive Map
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Cyperus spectabilis image
Click to Display
100 Initial Media
- - - - -
View All Media
Institute for Museum and Library Services KU BI Logo Logo for the Biodiversity Knowledge Integration Center

This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services [MG-70-19-0057-19].

EcoFlora is part of the SEINet Portal Network. Learn more here.

Powered by Symbiota.