Tropical Fimbry

New World examples of Fimbristylis cymosa are almost exclusively bicarpellate, with bifid styles; Old World Oceania examples are tricarpellate, with trifid styles, a form not covered in this treatment.

F. cymosa is interpreted here collectively following Kern, in Fl. Malesiana (1974). The bulk of Malesian plants and specimens from our area also have, besides rather wide inflorescences, distigmatic flowers. Distigmatic plants were called by Kral (l.c., 1971) and Bhandari (Flora of the Indian Desert, 1990) F. spathacea (type - B. Heyne from India), which is in accordance with the protologue. Both F. cymosa and F. obtusifolia are, according to their protologue, tristigmatic.

Plants perennial, cespitose, (5–)10–60 cm, bases hard, glabrous; rhizomes absent. Leaves polystichous, mostly spreading-excurved, to 1/2 as long as culms; sheaths usually entire; ligule absent; blades linear, 2–3 mm wide, flat or shallowly involute, margin scabrid, apex blunt. Inflorescences: simple or compound anthelae with numerous small pedunculate clusters of sessile spikelets; scapes linear, distally terete, 1–2 mm thick; involucral bracts short, usually shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets greenish brown or yellow-brown, ovoid, 2–3 mm; fertile scales broadly ovate, 1–1.5 mm, obtuse or apically notched, midrib not excurrent. Flowers: stamens usually 1; styles 2-fid, slender, glabrous. Achenes dark brown to nearly black, tumidly obovoid, rarely obscurely 3-ribbed, 1 mm, faintly striate to variously warty, faintly reticulate. 2n = 56.

Greyish green perennial, forming tight tufts, 10-20 cm. Stem rigid, terete to triangular, deeply grooved, smooth. Leaves less than half stem length; sheaths 1-2.5 cm, pale brown, lustrous, with wide scarious margins; blades 1-1.5 mm wide, stiff, slightly turgid, frequently falcate, involute or flat, margins barbed towards apex, apex short, frequently mucronate. Inflorescence compact or diffuse with elongate peduncles, of 10 or more solitary spikes, or, in compact inflorescences, spikes sessile and clustered; bracts usually short, margins scabrous; branches compressed or from triangular to terete. Spikes 2-5 x 1-2.5 mm, ovoid, more or less terete, greyish brown to brown; rachis articulate, castaneous brown, with prominent brown or colourless wings; glumes 1.8-2 x 1-1.2 mm, keeled, light brown, with green or pale mid-rib not reaching apex, margins widely scarious. Stamens 2; anthers 1.7-1.8 mm, with small basal lobes; style 1-1.2 mm, brown; stigmas 2 (or 3), ciliate, 0.4-0.5 mm. Nut c. 0.8 x 0.6 mm, ovoid, lenticular, slightly rugulose, dark brown.

Fla.; s Mexico; Central America; South America; Africa; Asia; Indian Ocean Islands; Pacific Islands; Australia.

Distribution: Probably pantropical.

Fl. Per.: October.

Fruiting all year.

Sands of sea beaches, brackish sandy open sites, often disturbed, commonly just in from mangrove or on sandy road shoulders; 0–50m.

Along coasts of Indian ocean.

Fimbristylis melanospora Fernald; F. obtusifolia (Lamarck) Kunth 1837, not Nees ex C. Presl 1828; F. sintenisii Boeckeler; F. spathacea Roth; Scirpus obtusifolius Lamarck

F. spathacea Roth, Nov. Pl. Spec.: 24. 1821; C.B.Clarke in Hook.f., l.c. 642; F. glomerata (Schrad.) Nees, fide Goetgheb. & Goudijzer, Bull. Jard. Bot. Nat. Belg. 54. 1984, Isolepis glomerata Schrad. in Roem. & Schult. 1824; Kral in Sida 4(2): Pl. 43a (as F. spathacea) 1971. K.M. Matthew, Fl. Tamilnadu Carnatic 4: Pl. 662. 1988.