Oxycaryum (Oxycaryum)
Description
Oxycaryum is a monotypic genus of herbaceous plants belonging to the family of the Cyperaceae . It includes only one species : Oxycaryum cubense that is distributed from Mexico to Brazil and Paraguay , Greater Antilles , Trinidad and Tobago ,tropical Africa. It has stems of 20-70 cm x 3-5 mm, robust or thin; Stolons 5-20 cm x 2-3 mm, scaly. Leaves 20-90 cm x 2-6 (-10) mm, generally longer than the stems, markedly in the form of "V", folded at the base, flattened distally, the base encavain septate-nodulosa on the underside. Bracts well spaced, the longest (10-) 30-60 cm x (2-) 4-9 mm. Rays 3-10, up to 4 (-8) cm, rarely with a short secondary branch. Heads 5-18 mm in diameter, globose or hemispherical, with numerous compact pins. Spikes 3.5-6 x 2.5-3.5 mm; basal ciliated bracts, acuminate; conical, persistent rachilla. Bracing them fertile c. 3.5 mm, broadly ovate to oblong, hard, inconspicuously multinerial, deciduous, mid-greenish rib, smooth or setulosa, acuminate, excursion on a thick, reddish-brown cusp on the sides, the margins short or long ciliated. Style with 2 branches, confluent with the apex of the ovary. Akenia 2-2.6 (-3) x (0.6-) 0.8-1 mm, including the face, flattened-convex, the base attenuated, brown, the whitish margins thickened, smooth, light yellowish, the face attenuated, acuminate 0.5- 0.6 mm.
Taxonomic tree
-
Domain: Eukarya
-
-
Kingdom: Plantae
-
-
Phylum: Magnoliophyta
-
-
Class: Liliopsida
-
-
Order: Poales
-
-
Family: Cyperaceae
-
-
Genus: Oxycaryum
-
-
-
-
-
-
