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Electronic Flora of South Australia
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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Juncaceae
Luzula

Citation: DC., in Lam. & DC., Fl. Franc. edn 3, 1:198 (1805).

Derivation: Italian luzziola, the fire-fly; probably alluding to the shining and quivering character of the heads or clusters of the flowers.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Woodrushes.

Description:
Perennials, mostly growing near the water; leaf-sheaths closed; the leaves usually hairy.

Each flower has usually 2 small hyaline bracteoles at the base; small lanceolate scarious bracts at the base of the panicle branches; stamens usually 6; ovary with 3 basal ovules in 1 cell; seeds minute, numerous, on parietal placentas, with a membranous testa often loose and transparent at the end.

Capsule opening loculicidally in 3 valves. (Nordenskiold (1969) Bot. Notis. 122:69-89; key after Edgar (1975) New Zealand J. Bot. 13:781-802).

Distribution:  About 80 species, cosmopolitan.

Biology: No text

Taxonomic notes: Black (1943) placed all S.Aust. species of Luzula in L. campestris. This species is now considered to be native only in the Northern Hemisphere and not to occur in S.Aust.

Key to Species:
1. Anthers 2-6 (usually 4-5) mm long
 
2. Mature capsule usually a light creamy-brown
L. flaccida 3.
2. Mature capsule reddish- or purple-brown
L. densiflora 2.
1. Anthers more than 0.5 mm long, but some flowers with occasional smaller anthers
 
3. Tufts bulbous at the base, slender; flowering stems c. 20-30 cm tall
L. meridionalis 4.
3. Tufts not bulbous at the base, always robust if flowering stems more than 20 cm tall
 
4. Plants long-rhizomatous; inflorescence an oblong head with a few sessile lower clusters
L. australasica 1.
4. Plants tufted, rarely rhizomatous; inflorescence of several more or less pedunculate ovate heads or a single ovate cluster
L. flaccida 3.

Author: Not yet available


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