Lepironia Pers. (Persoon 1805: 70)

Rasaminirina, Fitiavana & Larridon, Isabel, 2023, The genera of Cyperaceae of Madagascar, Plant Ecology and Evolution 156 (3), pp. 276-310 : 276

Lepironia Pers. (Persoon 1805: 70)

Type species.

Lepironia mucronata Rich. [= Lepironia articulata (Retz.) Domin]

Description of the genus.

Medium-sized to tall perennials; rhizomes woody, creeping with thick roots. Culms scapose, erect, terete, with transverse septa. Basal leaves, reduced to a sheath, open in front, the margins overlapping, eligulate. Involucral bracts 1, large, subulate, cylindric, erect, culm-like. Inflorescence a single spike, pseudolateral, with many spirally arranged imbricate glume-like bracts; basal glume-like bracts empty, most subtending spicoids. Spicoids with 2 outer strongly keeled glumes and many non-keeled glumes, most subtending 1 stamen and a solitary apparently terminal female flower; rachilla thick and spongy. Florets unisexual; perianth absent. Stamens 1; anthers linear, apiculate; filaments highly accrescent. Style deeply 2-fid, long, slender; base not distinct, slightly thickened, persistent. Nutlets obovoid, dorsiventrally compressed, plano-convex, ± winged along the margins, beaked.

Distribution and ecology.

Lepironia occurs in Madagascar, and in tropical and subtropical Asia to the Western Pacific ( POWO 2022). It grows in freshwater wetlands near sea level. In Madagascar, the single species of Lepironia , i.e. Lepironia articulata (Fig. 1 ), occurs along the east coast.

Figures

Figure 1. Lepironia articulata. A. Habit. B. Inflorescences. All photos taken in Vatomasina Vohipeno, Vohipeno District, Fitovinany Region by Botovao Auguste Ramiandrisoa, reproduced with permission from the photographer.