Literature for Fimbristylis cymosa Wagner et al. 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. Literature for Fimbristylis cymosa subsp. umbellato-capitata Wagner et al., 1990, 1999. Literature for Fimbristylis cymosa subsp. spathacea Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
Cyperaceae -- The Sedge Family	Bibliography
Fimbristylis cymosa

General Information
Distribution	Indigenous across the Pacific Basin including Australia, western Malesia, Pacific islands, and the Neotropics.
Habit	Perennial herb with short rhizomes; culms densely tufted, stiffly erect, obtusely trigonous, 5‒60 cm tall, 1‒2 mm in diameter.
Leaves	Leaves numerous; blade subcoriaceous, linear, much shorter than culms, 1‒4 mm wide, spreading to recurved, flat or margin weakly recurved, abruptly contracted to an obtuse apex; sheath persistent, thickly clothing the culm base, ventrally membranous, dorsally eventually becoming dusky brown to dark brown; ligule absent.
Flowers	Inflorescences simple or compound, to 4 cm long, 7 cm wide, or condensed, headlike, and 0.7‒2 cm in diameter; involucral bracts 1‒3, usually shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets solitary to clustered, rusty brown or somewhat grayish brown, oblong-ellipsoid to oblong-ovoid, 3‒6 mm long, 1.5‒2.5 mm wide, apex obtuse; glumes rusty brown, margin broadly white-hyaline, membranous, ovate to broadly ovate, 1‒1.3 mm long, obtuse, 3- or 5-veined; style scarcely flattened, ca. 1 mm long, glabrous, not fimbriate, stigmas 2‒3.
Fruit	Achenes dark brown to grayish brown, nearly smooth, broadly obovoid, trigonous to somewhat biconvex, 0.7‒1 mm long.
Chromosomes	2n = 10, 28*, 40, 48*.
Notes	Fimbristylis cymosa is known only from a few Marquesas collections, and we prefer not to recognize infraspecies.
Contributor	David Lorence