Scleria pergracilis
Content
Description
Annual.
Leaves narrowly linear, acutish, glabrous, scabrid towards the top, ½-2 mm wide;
Inflorescence linear, unbranched, spiciform, consisting of 5-25 clusters of spikelets;
Distribution
Asia-Temperate: China South-Central (Yunnan present), Asia-Tropical: India present; Philippines (Philippines present); Sumatera (Sumatera present); Thailand (Thailand present), Bontoc present, Ceylon present, Cotabato present, Karo Plateau present, Luzon present, Mindanao present, NE. New Guinea present, Tropical Africa present
Tropical Africa; Ceylon, India, Thailand, Indo-China, Yunnan; in Malesia very rare: Sumatra (Karo Plateau), Philippines (Luzon: Bontoc; Mindanao: Cotabato), NE. New Guinea.
Uses
In Sumatra the strongly lemon-scented leaves are used as a remedy against fever and foot- and-mouth disease; in New Guinea they are eaten with salt.
Notes
The numerous spikelets I dissected were all bisexual, the ultimate one of each cluster frequently with much reduced androecium and gynoecium, not maturing a nut. CLARKE () described the African specimens as having also many ♂ spikelets, similar to the bisexual ones, except that they lack the third nut-bearing glume. Also PIERART () mentions the presence of strictly ♂ spikelets. They may have mistaken the reduced ultimate spikelets for ♂ ones.
Citation
BOECK. 1874 – In: Linnaea: 438
STEUD. 1855 – In: Syn.: 176
NEES 1834 – In: Wight, Contr.: 118
Merr. 1923 – In: En. Philip.: 134
CAMUS 1912: p. 160. – In: Fl. Gén. I.-C.: f. 21, 1-4
Clarke 1894 – In: Fl. Br. Ind.: 685
S. T. BLAKE 1954 – In: J. Arn. Arb.: 224
KUNTH 1898 – In: J. Linn. Soc. Bot.: 96
KUNTH 1909: Ill. Cyp.: f. 1-5
KERN 1961 – In: Blumea: 196