Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Monocotyledon Literature for Rhynchospora sclerioides
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999.
   Cyperaceae -- The Sedge Family Bibliography
      Rhynchospora sclerioides
General Information
DistributionNative to Polynesia.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.

Cyperaceae - Rhynchospora sclerioides















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Habit
Perennials with short rhizomes covered with brown fibers; culms stout, (20-)40-90 cm tall, trigonous, smooth or scabrous, especially on angles, 1-3-nodose.
Leaves
Leaves numerous, primarily basal, crowded, 1-3 cauline in lower 1/2 of culm, linear, flat, as long as or longer than the culm, (5-)7-18 mm wide, lower surface strongly scabrous on margins and midnerve, apex long-acuminate; sheaths brown.
Flowers
Inflorescence an elongated, narrow, interrupted, decompound panicle 15-60 cm long, bearing 5-9 partial panicles, these solitary, pyramidal-ovoid, 3-7 cm long, 2-4 cm wide, many-branched, dense to lax, peduncles 3-7 cm long, scarcely exserted, bracts longer than the subtending partial panicle, the sheath up to 5 cm long, slightly dilated in upper part, green, tinged brown toward base; spikelets brown to reddish brown, solitary or in groups of 2-3, sessile or short-pedicellate, lanceolate, acute, 7-8 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide; glumes 6-8, 2-ranked, the middle 3-4 flower-bearing, 2 of them perfect, lower empty ones ovate, the flower-bearing ones chartaceous, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate, 5-6 mm long, the slender midnerve prolonged into a short awn; perianth bristles 5-6, 5-7 mm long, much longer than the achene and surpassing the style base, antrorsely scabrous; style base pale brown, subulate-conical, ca. 1.5 mm long, the base nearly as wide as the achene, gradually tapering to a long, filiform, 2-cleft style.
Fruit
Achenes yellowish brown, obovate to obovate-oblong, dorsiventrally lenticular, 1.2-1.5 mm long including a short stipe, 1-1.3 mm wide, minutely reticulate-cancellate.