Scirpus wichurai
Content
Description
Perennial;
Leaves shorter than the stems, basal and cauline, rather rigid, flat, gradually acuminate, scabrous on the margins, 5-20 mm wide;
Inflorescence consisting of 1-4 anthelas, the terminal one large, decompound or supradecompound, up to 25 by 20 cm, the lateral ones when present axillary, much smaller.
Stamens 1-2;
Distribution
Annam present, Asia-Temperate: Korea present, Asia-Tropical: Assam (Assam present); India present; Sumatera (Sumatera present), Atjeh present, Bur ni Gĕrĕdong present, E. Himalaya present, Japan present, Khasia present, Mt Kerintji present, Peuet Sago present, S. China present, West Coast Res present
India (E. Himalaya, Khasia, Assam), Annam, S. China, Korea, Japan, in Malesia only in Sumatra: Atjeh (Peuet Sago, Bur ni Gĕrĕdong), West Coast Res. (Mt Kerintji).
Notes
The Malesian specimens perfectly agree with the type collection and additional materials from India. Scirpus wichurai belongs to an intricate group of mutually closely related taxa, which has another centre of development in North America. It comes near to the American S. cyperinus (L.) KUNTH and S. rubricosus FERN. (= S. eriophorum MICHX, nom. illeg). It differs by the ovate (not oblong-ovate) glumes, the shorter, somewhat firmer bristles scabrid in the upper part, and the larger nuts. Possibly these differences are too trifling to warrant specific distinctness, the more so as some Japanese specimens show a clear approach to the American taxa in having narrower glumes, and bristles only denticulate at the very top. Also OHWI refers the Japanese plants to S. wichurai. The question whether all the species distinguished can be upheld, or should be considered racial differentiations of one linneont can only be solved by comparative study of extensive materials from the whole area of the group.