Family: Restionaceae
Centrolepis
Citation:
Labill., Nov. Holl. Pl. Sp. 1:7 (1804).
Derivation: Greek kentron, spur; lepis, scale; referring to the points on the bracts of C. fascicularis.
Synonymy: Alepyrum R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 253 (1810); Devauxia R. Br., Prod. Fl. Nov. Holl. 252 (1810).
Common name: None
Description:
Small annual and perennial herbs; leaves linear, forming a basal tuft; innermost leaf often reduced to a short sheath.
Scapes erect, leafless or absent; inflorescence a head of 1 to numerous sessile pseudanthia enclosed by a more or less opposite pair of herbaceous primary bracts with dilated sheathing bases, often produced beyond the head as leaf-like laminae; pseudanthia each consisting of 2-30 female florets superposed alternately in 2 rows along a vertical axis, usually with a solitary male floret at the base; secondary bracts hyaline, 2 or 3 surrounding each pseudanthium, or absent; ovaries more or less connate, ovoid; styles filiform, connate at least at the base, forming a brush-like bundle, exserted.
Seed ovoid, smooth, pale-brown, translucent.
Distribution:
|
About 24 species; 19 in Australia, the others in south-eastern Asia, New Guinea and New Zealand. Centrolepis.
|
|
|
Biology:
No text
Key to Species:
|
1. Heads sessile among the basal leaves |
|
C. cephaloformis 2. |
|
|
|
2. Leaves pilose, at least near the base |
|
|
|
3. Perennial; each pseudanthium with 2-4 female florets |
|
C. fascicularis 5. |
|
3. Annuals; each pseudanthium with 4-7 female florets |
|
|
|
C drummondiana 3. |
|
C. strigosa 8. |
|
2. Leaves completely glabrous |
|
|
|
5. Leaves distichous; both bracts of the head with long leaf-like laminae |
|
C. aristata 1. |
|
5. Leaves not distichous; outer bract only with a leaf-like lamina |
|
|
|
6. Bract lamina straight, no longer than the head; plant softly herbaceous |
|
C. glabra 6. |
|
6. Bract lamina recurved, longer than the head; leaves wiry; bract bases hardened |
|
|
|
7. Pseudanthia 4-10 per head |
|
C. eremica 4. |
|
7. Pseudanthia 1 or 2 per head |
|
C. polygyna 7. |
Author:
Not yet available
|