Eleocharis sellowiana Kunth

Eleocharis sellowiana Kunth, Enum. PI. 2: 149. 1837
Eleogenus Sellovianus Nees in Mart. Fl. Bras. 2^: 103. 1842.
Eleocharis homonyma Steud. Syn. Cyp. 79. 1855. (Guiana.)
Heleocharis albivaginata 5 macrostachya Bock. Linnaea 36: 438. 1870. (Puerto Rico?)
Scirpus Sellowianus Griseb. Abh. Ges. Wiss. Gott. 24: 312. 1879.
Heleocharis crispovaginata Bock. Bot. Jahrb. 8: 206. 1887. (Northern Ecuador.)
Heleocharis Pittieri Bock. Allg. Bot. Zeitschr. 2: 35. 1896. (Costa Rica.)
Eleocharis Sellowiana var. homonyma H. Pfeiffer, Herb. 56: 54. 1921.
Eleocharis galapagensis Svenson, Rhodora 31 : 233. 1929. (Galapagos Islands.)
Culms numerous, rigid, somewhat spongy and thickened, 8-15 cm. long, usually 1.5-2 mm.
wide when dry, striate, constricted below the spikelet; upper sheath with a divided, hyaline,
fugacious apex ; spikelets 5-10 mm. long, ellipsoid, acute, many-flowered ; scales appressed,
oblong, obtuse, scarcely keeled, stramineous, with a narrow brown stripe on each side of
the midrib ; style bifid ; stamens 3 ; achene 0.8-1 mm. long, broadly obovate, turgid-lenticular,
somewhat flattened at the margin, olivaceous, shining, minutely black-striate ; style-base
yellowish-green, short-conic, acute, marginulate below, about one-fourth as wide as the
achene ; bristles 7 or 8, glistening-white, shorter than the achene.
Type locality : Brazil.
Distribution: Costa Rica; tropical South America.