Cyperaceae - Sedge family

Annual or perennial herbs, usually most abundant in wet places. Culms usually triangular, usually solid. Leaves: alternate, usually 3-ranked, simple, grass-like or reduced to sheaths; sheath usually closed; ligule usually 0; lamina usually linear or setaceous. Inflorescence consisting of numerous spikelets, usually arranged in an anthela or panicle, often ± umbellate and subtended by leaf-like bracts. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, arising in the axils of a single bract (glume) without a bracteole, or in tribe Cariceae, the female flowers surrounded by a closed utricle. Glumes usually spirally arranged in 1-many-flowered spikelets. Perianth (only present in the tribes Scirpeae and Rhynchosporeae) consisting of 3-6 (rarely more) hairs, bristles or scales, in other tribes 0. Stamens (1-)2-3; anthers basifixed. Ovary superior, 1-locular with 1 erect ovule. Style simple; stigmas 2 or 3. Fruit a 1-seeded nut, biconvex or trigonous. Seeds free from the pericarp.

Comment: In some of the higher-rainfall parts of the country, Cyperaceae are abundant and these areas are often rich in species. In collecting material for determination, it should be noted that the basal and underground parts are often necessary for identification and that immature or flowering material is often difficult to name.

Worldwide: 98 genera and 4,350 species, cosmopolitan but especially temperate areas.

Zimbabwe: 1 cultivated genus and 1 cultivated taxon.