Rhynchospora corymbosa

Deepu, S. & Thomas, William Wayt, 2019, A reinvestigation on the taxonomic identity of Rhynchospora panduranganii (Cyperaceae), Phytotaxa 387 (3), pp. 249-254 : 250

Rhynchospora corymbosa (L.) Britton, Trans. New York Acad. Sc. 11: 84.1892.

= Scirpus corymbosus L., Cent. Pl. II: 7.1756.

Type :— India ( LINN –71.48) Lectotype designated by Gordon-Gray, Strelitzia 2: 150 (1995)

Perennial herb. Rhizomes 0.5–1.5 cm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, woody, thick. Culms 1–5, 75–180 × 0.3–0.7 cm, erect or ascending, stout, grooved, triquetrous with several nodes, leafy up to top, hardened, stiff, finely ribbed, smooth or scaberulose on angles, pale green to green. Leaves basal and cauline, 8–15 per culm; sheaths 2–6 cm long; contraligule obtuse, membraneous, reddish brown; blades 15–80 × 0.8–2 cm, green, flat, gradually narrowed towards apex, scabrous on the margins. Inflorescence comprising a terminal and 2–5 axillary synflorescences, corymbiform anthelas, compound or decompound, many-branched; involucral bracts 4–6, unequal; lowest leaf-like, 30–75 cm long, patent, sheathless, base dilated, distally scabrid; upper setaceous; upper bracts linear, 10–35 cm long; terminal synflorescence 10–35 × 15–20 cm, peduncles 10–15 cm long, spikelet clusters 20–40 per inflorescence; axillary synflorescence 8–12 × 5–10 cm, peduncles 5–10 cm long; Spikelets subterete, lanceoloid, 9–10 mm long, rusty brown or chestnut brown, 2 or 3-flowered, apex acute; pedicel 1.8–2 mm long; glumes subdistichous, 5–7 per spikelet, 3–7 mm long, membranous, apex acute or mucronate; lower ones ovate; upper ones oblong-ovate; lowest flower bisexual; upper one male. Perianth bristles 6, persistent, 4–4.5 mm long, exceeding the achene, antrorsely scabrid. Stamens 3; anthers 2–2.5 mm long. Ovary obovoid; style shortly or hardly bilobed at apex; base dilated; stigma undivided. Achenes obovoid or oblongobovate, 3.5–4 × 1.7–2 mm, compressed, transversely wrinkled in the middle portion, brown to dark brown, dull, base cuneate, subacute at apex; stylopodium elongated-conical, 4–5 × 1.7–2 mm long, compressed.