Diagnostic description ¹

Scleria scindens Nees ex Kunth, Enum. Pl. 2: 343. 1837.

Fig. 173. C-E

Perennial herb, forming large colonies, erect or climbing, attainig 3.5 m in length. Culms acutely triquetrous, 3-8 mm wide retrorsely and antrorsely scabrid on the corners, strigulose onthe distal portion. Leaves alternate, linear, 30-90 × 0.5-1.5 cm, almost flat or pleated, with five parallel main veins, subrigid, retrorsely scabrid on the veins and the margins; leaf sheath scabrid on the angles. Panicles solitary, terminal, pyramidal, dense, 3-8 cm wide, sometimes with one or two small panicles at the base; bracts usually 3 on the terminal panicles. Staminate and pistillate spikelets intermingled, of the same size; sterile scales 2-3, 3-4 mm long, light brown, ciliate on the margins, apiculate at the apex. Achenes globose, 2.3-2.6 mm long, apiculate, white, shiny, sometimes with a purple tinge; hypogynium trilobate, 1-1.7 mm long, the lobes semicircular, slightly revolute, divergent (not appressed to the achene).

Phenology: Collected in flower and fruit from February to August.

Status: Native, locally common.

Distribution ²

Distribution:In moist or semi-moist disturbed areas in the Virgin Islands (St. John, Tortola, and Virgin Gorda). Also in Cuba, Hispaniola, and the Lesser Antilles.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435588
2. (c) Pedro Acevedo-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/28435988

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