Xyris lanulobractea

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Xyris lanulobractea

Description

Rushlike, slender, cespitose, hard-based, smooth, perennial, 40-70 cm high; leaves erect, 20-40 cm, sheath elongate, entire, ecarinate, glossy red-brown, with erect ligule to 3 mm, blade filiform, terete to oval in cross-section, 0.5-0.7 mm thick, fluted. Scapes distally terete, ca. 1 mm thick; spikes broadly ovoid to obovoid, 0.7-1 (-1.5) cm, dull brown, attenuate-based, bracts in a spiral, the empty ones many, grading larger into the fertile ones, these broadly elliptic to obovate, ca. 6 mm, margins broadly rounded, white-villosulous, back convex, ecarinate, dorsal area red-brown, conspicuous. Lateral sepals free, equilateral, keel wide, curved, ciliolate near base, upward pale-villous-fimbriate; petals broadly obovate to suborbicular, ca. 5 mm; staminodes bearded; anthers 1 mm. Capsule ca. 2 mm, placentation basal, valves eseptate; seeds few, cylindric or lance-ovoid, 1.1-1.3 mm, amber, often angled.

Distribution

Gran Sabana present, S Bolivar present, SW Guyana present, Southern America: Venezuela (Venezuela present), contiguous Amazonian Brazil present
Gran Sabana of S Bolivar, Venezuela E to SW Guyana and contiguous Amazonian Brazil

Notes

This is very similar to X. globosa A. Nilsson, a common low-elevation savanna plant to the west and southwest, but more slender, narrower- leaved, with smaller, narrower spikes, bearded (rather than beardless staminodes and with broader petal blades.