Cyperaceae
(Sedge Family)
Habit
- mostly perennial, semiaquatic herbs
Plants
- mostly
monoecious,
synoecious or
dioecious
Stems
- often triangular, solid
Leaves
- alternate, often 3-ranked with a closed (
connate)
sheath; blades flat, round or absent
Inflorescence
- of
spikelets aggregated into
racemes,
spikes,
panicles, or
umbels
Flowers
- subtended by a single
bract or 1 bract and a
perigynium
(sac-like circular bractlet that encloses female flowers of Carex)
Perianth
- parts reduced to
bristles or absent
Stamens
- 1-3
Gynoecium
- of 2 or 3
carpels,
connate,
ovary superior with 1
locule and 1
basal ovule; 1
style with 2 or 3
branches
Fruit
- an
achene; flattened (
biconvex) if from 2
carpels,
triangular if from 3.
Diversity
- 100 genera / 3,600 species;
Distribution
- mostly cold and temperate wet meadows and streams
Economics
- thatching, basketry, early paper-making; edible
tubers in some (water chestnuts);
Notes
-
Images
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