Citation: Palla, Verh.zool.-bot. Ges. Wien. 38, Sitzb.:49 (1888).

Derivation: Greek schoinos, a rush; plektos, twisted.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Annual or perennial herbs; stems tufted or arising from creeping rhizomes, slender or stout; leaves with or without blades.

Inflorescence terminal on a usually nodeless scape but often appearing lateral; involucral bracts usually 1, stiff, erect and culm-like and continuing the stem; inflorescence a head or umbel of heads or clusters of 1-5 spikelets; spikelets many-flowered, 5-15 mm long, oblong or ovoid; glumes spirally arranged around the rhachilla; flowers bisexual; stamens 2 or 3; style slender throughout, deciduous, branches 2 or 3; hypogynous bristles present (in S.Aust.).

Distribution:  About 60 species, almost cosmopolitan; 11 in Australia. The decision to separate Schoenoplectus from Scirpus and the key to species are taken from K. Wilson (1981) Telopea 2:153-172.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Inflorescence compound, with the lowest involucral bract usually shorter than or equalling the inflorescence; culms terete; nuts smooth
2. Hypogynous bristles 5 or 6, setaceous, retrorsely scabrous; glumes distinctly ciliate	S. validus 4.
2. Hypogynous bristles 4 (rarely 3 or 5), flattened and spathulate, plumosely fringed with antrorse hairs; glumes only microscopically ciliolate	S. litoralis 2.
1. Inflorescence simple, capitate; the lowest involucral bract much exceeding the inflorescence; nuts smooth or rugose
3. Slender plants; culms up to 1 mm diam., trigonous	S. dissachanthus 1.
3. Robust plants; culms 2-7 mm diam., acutely triquetrous	S. pungens 3.

Author: Not yet available