Puerto Rico Fimbry

Greyish green, tufted perennial, 30-35 cm. Rhizome short, horizontal or ascending, with tillers. Stem 2-3 mm wide, strongly compressed, with 2 sharp edges, grooved, papillose between veins. Leaves c. half of stem length; shetahs up to 70 mm, yellowish green, lowest blade-less, mouth margin of scarious side deeply oblique; ligule a fringe of hairs c. 0.3 mm long; blades 3-5 mm wide, flat, soft, flexuous, grey green, abaxial side many-nerved, with papillae between nerves, adaxial side with much wider cells, not papillose, margins scabrous towards obtuse apex. Inflorescence 40-80 x 35-80 mm, a globose anthelodium of c. 100 to more than 200 spikes; lowest bract foliose, shorter than inflorescence; primary branches many, up to 50 mm, compressed, deeply grooved, all over scabrous; secondary anthelodia to 30 x 40 mm, secondary branches several, to 15 mm, compressed, scabrous; tertiary anthelodia to 15 x 15 mm, with 3-7 tertiary branches to 5 mm; ultimate branches end in spike 4-10 x 1.5-2 mm, brown, fusiform, with 10-30 glumes; glumes 2-2.8 x c. 1.5 mm, keeled, acute, brown, mid-nerve smooth or scabrous, excurrent to mucro, sides nerve-less, brown, scarious. Stamens 3, anther c. 1 mm; stigmas 3. Nut 0.5-0.7 x 0.4-0.5 mm, obovate, trigonous, reticulate and tuberculate, white, with small brownish stipe.

Pantropical, also extending northwards to S. China and temperate Japan.

Distribution: Pantropical.

900-3100 m

Fl. Per.: September.

Seasonally wet ground, marshes.

Scirpus complanatus Retz., Observ. Bot. 5: 14. 1789; K.M. Matthew, Fl. Tamilnadu Carnatic 4: pl. 66 1988.

Fimbristylis complanata (Retz.) Link, Hort, Berol 1 : 292. 1827.
Scirpus complanatiis Retz. Obs. 5: 14. 1789.
Cyperus complanatus Willd. Sp. PI. 1 : 270. 1797.
Cyperus amentaceus Rudge, PI. Guian. 16. 1805, fide Kukenthal, Pflanzenreich 4^: 629. 1936.
(French Guiana.) Scirpus anceps Willd. Ges. Nat. Freunde Berlin Mag. 2: 288. 1808. (Java.) Not 5". anceps
Poir. 1804. Isolepis Willdenowii R. & S. Syst. 2: 120. 1817.
Trichelostylis complanata Nees in Wight, Contr. Bot. India 103. 1834. Trichelostylis Rudgeana Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2^ : 79. 1842. Fimbristylis obscitra Fernald, Proc. Am. Acad. 36: 492. 1901. Fimbristylis autumnalis var. complanata Barros, Anal. Mus. Argent. Ci. Nat. 41 : 334. 1945.
Glabrous cespitose annual ; culms flattened, 1-3 mm. wide, 2-6 dm. high ; leaves 2-6 mm. wide, shorter than the culms, the involucral bracts usually 2 and shorter than the inflorescence; umbel compound or decompound, the linear or linear-oblong spikelets 5-10 mm. long, sessile or on capillary peduncles ; scales brown, ovate to lanceolate, with a short mucro ; achenes trigonous, white to buff, opaque, 0.8-0.9 mm. long, usually with horizontally elongated reticulation, frequently verrucose; style terete, not fimbriate, bulbous at the base, 1.0 mm. long below the 3 branches ; stamens 2.
Type locality : India.
Distribution: Mexico; British Honduras (Schipp 904); abundant from Cuba southward in the West Indies ; tropical South America ; Old World tropics.