Paepalanthus lamarckii Kunth

Paepalanthus lamarckii Kunth, Enum. PL 3: 506. 1841
Eriocaulon fasciculatum Lam. Encyc. 3: 276. 1789. Not E. fasciculalum Rottb. 1778. Eriocaulon Lamarckii Steud. Syn. Cyp. 276. 1855. Dupatya Lamarckii Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 746. 1891.
Stems simple, 2-8 cm. long; leaves dull or grayish-green, the older ones olivaceous, plane, linear-lanceolate or broadly linear, 1.3-3 cm. long, 0.5-2.3 mm. wide at the middle, ampliateclasping at base, narrowed to a rather acute or obtuse apex, many-striate, sparsely puberulent or pilose, soon glabrescent; peduncles fasciculate at apex of stem, 2-20, usually numerous, 1.5-7 cm. long, irregularly and more or less densely spreading-pilose; sheaths rather loose, 9-13 mm. long, long-pilose, the blade rather rigid, often lobed or bifid, attenuate and sharply acute at apex, often somewhat patent, long-ciliate, at first puberulent, eventually calvescent; heads sordid gray-brown, globose, 2-3 mm. in diameter, villose; involucral bractlets gray-brown, with a lighter midrib, obovate, subacute, densely pilose at apex; receptacle pilose; receptacular bractlets brown, with a white midrib, spatulate, acute, densely long-pilose above the middle on the back; staminate florets: sepals 3, stramineous at base, dark-brown at apex (except for a broad white central band), spatulate, obtuse, ciliate at apex; petal-tube stramineous; stamens 3; pistillate florets: sepals similar in color and texture to those of the staminate florets, obovate, pilose along the margins and at apex, spreading; petals 3, tiny, white or hyaline, linear, blunt, sparsely ciliate at apex; ovary 3-celled; style-appendages long and hyaline; stigmas 3, shorter and brown; seeds slightly curved, cancellate.
Type locality: French Guiana (Aublet).
Distribution: Hispaniola, Cuba, and British Honduras to Panama, Trinidad, and Brazil.