Schoenus brevifolius

Features

Rush-like sedge up to 1 m tall. Rhizome hard, lignaceous and coarse, up to 8 mm diameter, covered with closely appressed, dark red, red-black to black glossy bracts. Culms closely packed, rigidly erect, 0.5-1.3 m long, c.2 mm diameter, dark green to yellow-green, smooth, often shallowly grooved on one side, apex maturing as a hard, grey, woody cap-like spike. Leaves reduced to 3-4 very dark red, hard, mucronate sheaths, the 2 uppermost with a short, subulate, erect lamina; orifice of sheath not ciliate. Panicle 80-300 mm long, very narrow, upright and stiff, occasionally bent at the apex, with more or less distant fascicles of 3-5 branchlets, each fascicle subtended by a short sheath similar to those at culm base; branchlets flexuous, flattened, with scabrid margins, often branched again, sheaths subtending secondary branchlets ciliate at the mouth, Spikelet terminating each branchlet 9-12 mm long, 2-4-flowered, lanceolate, red-brown. Glumes 7-14, ovate-lanceolate, acute, margins ciliate towards the apex, 4-6, lower glumes smaller, empty, 2-3 succeeding glumes fertile, uppermost 2-3 glumes sterile. Hypogynous bristles 0. Stamens usually 2, occasionally 3. Style-branches 3. Nut 1.5 x 1 mm, cream, turgid, surface distinctly rugose.