Scleria ciliaris
Content
Description
Perennial.
Leaves rather abruptly narrowed to the obtusish tip, all scattered or the middle ones more or less approximate and the upper ones remote, scabrous on the margins and the main nerves in the upper part, glabrous or sparsely hairy, ¾-1½ cm wide;
Inflorescence very variable in shape, consisting of 2-3 lateral partial panicles and a terminal one, often confluent into a pyramidal, very dense, compound panicle, or the lateral partial panicles remote to very remote, ovoid to very long and narrow, spike-like;
Distribution
Asia-Tropical: Philippines (Philippines present); Thailand (Thailand present), Burma present, Busuanga present, Carolines present, Java only in the western part present, Lesser Sunda Is absent, Palawan present, S. China present, Solomons present, tropical Australia present
Burma, Thailand, and Indo-China to S. China, the Solomons, Carolines, and tropical Australia; widely distributed in Malesia, in Java only in the Western part, not known from the Lesser Sunda Is., and in the Philippines only in Palawan and Busuanga.
Notes
Readily recognizable by the long, scarious appendage of the contraligule and the long-exserted, stiff secondary bracts, which give the inflorescence a somewhat prickly appearance. Otherwise very variable in habit and size, and closely related to S. terrestris (L.) FASS.
Typical S. ciliaris has open, often large, brown inflorescences with long and narrow, often spike-like lateral panicles, whereas S. bancana has more compact, often very dense, oblong, greenish inflorescences, in which the short lateral panicles are not rarely confluent with the terminal one. S. ciliaris sensu stricto occurs in S. China, Indo-China, and — less pronounced in W. Java. S. bancana has a much wider distribution. The two do not exclude each other geographically. They are united here, as the characters for discrimination are feeble, and because there is a continuous series between the two extremes.
Typical S. ciliaris has open, often large, brown inflorescences with long and narrow, often spike-like lateral panicles, whereas S. bancana has more compact, often very dense, oblong, greenish inflorescences, in which the short lateral panicles are not rarely confluent with the terminal one. S. ciliaris sensu stricto occurs in S. China, Indo-China, and — less pronounced in W. Java. S. bancana has a much wider distribution. The two do not exclude each other geographically. They are united here, as the characters for discrimination are feeble, and because there is a continuous series between the two extremes.
Citation
CAMUS 1912 – In: Fl. Gén. I.-C.: 168
NEES 1968 – In: Back. & Bakh.f., Fl. Java 3: 486
Merr. 1921: En. Born.: 66
Miq. 1911 – In: J. Str. Br. R. As. Soc.: 225
Ridl. 1925 – In: Fl. Mal. Pen.: 178
Clarke 1894 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 693
KERN 1961 – In: Blumea: 174
Miq. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 133
S. T. BLAKE 1954 – In: J. Arn. Arb.: 227
BOECK. 1874 – In: Linnaea: 486
Ridl. 1907 – In: Mat. Fl. Mal. Pen. (Monoc.): 114
KUNTH 1898 – In: J. Linn. Soc. Bot.: 101
Ridl. 1925 – In: Fl. Mal. Pen.: 180
CAMUS 1912 – In: Fl. Gén. I.-C.: 167
Clarke 1894 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 690
STEUD. 1855 – In: Syn.: 179
Ridl. 1907 – In: Mat. Fl. Mal. Pen. (Monoc.): 112
Miq. 1898 – In: J. Linn. Soc. Bot.: 102
UITTIEN 1949 – In: Backer, Bekn. Fl. Java, (em. ed.), 10: fam. 246, p. 56
NEES 1837 – In: Hook. & Arn., Bot. Beech. Voy.: 229