Scleria

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Scleria
Starr 090213-2476 Unknown cyperaceae.jpg
Scleria testacea
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Poales
Family: Cyperaceae
Genus: Scleria
P.J.Bergius
Diversity
About 200 species

Scleria is a genus of flowering plants in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. They are known commonly as nutrushes. [1] They are distributed throughout the tropics, and some species have ranges extending into temperate areas. [2] There are about 200 species. [2] [3]

Contents

Etymology

The genus name Scleria is Greek, meaning "hardness", in reference to the tough seeds. [4]

Description

Plants of this genus are diverse in appearance. These are mostly perennial, but sometimes annual. Some have rhizomes. They produce solitary stems or clumps of many. They are a few centimeters tall to well over one meter. They have few leaves or many. The inflorescence is variable, ranging from a single spikelet to over 100. [3] Despite the variety, examination of the fruits and subterranean structures is required to distinguish species. [2]

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<i>Scirpus</i> Genus of flowering plants

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<i>Schoenus</i> (plant) Genus of grass-like plants

Schoenus is a predominately austral genus of sedges, commonly known as bogrushes, or veldrushes in South Africa. Species of this genus occur mainly in South Africa, Australia and Southeast Asia. Others are found in scattered locations worldwide, from Europe to Asia, North Africa and the Americas. Three species occur in the peatlands of southern South America, including S. antarcticus which is found in Tierra del Fuego, where it forms a component of hyperhumid Magellanic moorland.

Scleria amazonica is a plant species native to the State of Amazonas in southern Venezuela.

Scleria bracteata, the bracted nutrush, is a plant in the family Cyperaceae. It grows as a perennial climber.

Scleria robinsoniana is a plant in the nutrush genus Scleria of the sedge family Cyperaceae.

<i>Carex novae-angliae</i> Species of grass-like plant

Carex novae-angliae, the New England sedge, is a Carex species that is native to North America.

<i>Scleria pauciflora</i> Species of grass-like plant

Scleria pauciflora, known as few-flowered nutrush, papillose nut-sedge, and Carolina-whipgrass, is a plant in the sedge family (Cyperaceae) native to northern Mexico, the eastern United States, southern Canada, and Cuba. It is common across a broad stretch of the southeastern United States in many different habitat types, becoming rare at the northern end of its distribution.

<i>Scleria verticillata</i> Species of grass-like plant

Scleria verticillata, known as low nutrush or whorled nutrush, is a plant in the sedge family Cyperaceae. It is native to Ontario, Canada, the eastern United States, The Bahamas, and Cuba.

References

  1. Scleria. Integrated Taxonomic Information System.
  2. 1 2 3 Scleria. Flora of China.
  3. 1 2 Scleria. Flora of North America.
  4. Merrit Lyndon Fernald (1970). R. C. Rollins (ed.). Gray's Manual of Botany (Eighth (Centennial) - Illustrated ed.). D. Van Nostrand Company. p. 290. ISBN   0-442-22250-5.