Eriocaulon nigrobracteatum
| Eriocaulon nigrobracteatum | |
|---|---|
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| Eriocaulon nigrobracteatum, photo in natural habitat by John Palis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Division: | Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants |
| Class: | Liliopsida - Monocotyledons |
| Order: | Eriocaulales |
| Family: | Eriocaulaceae |
| Genus: | Eriocaulon |
| Species: | E. nigrobracteatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Eriocaulon nigrobracteatum E. L. Bridges & Orzell | |
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| Natural range of Eriocaulon nigrobracteatum from USDA NRCS Plants Database. | |
Contents
Description
Perennial, forming large dense clumps by basal offshoots. Leaves in a basal rosette, whitish below, dark green above, linear-attenuate, 0.5-1.5(-4.0) cm long, 0.3-1.0 mm wide, irregularly and incompletely septate, tapering evenly from a pale, aerenchymatous base. Sheath of scape much longer than the leaves, 1.5-2.0(-4.9) cm long, the orifice loose, oblique, hyaline, bifid. Mature scape delicately filiform, light green, 5-15(-19) cm long, 0.2-0.3 mm broad, strongly twisted, mostly 4 ridged. Mature heads hemispherical, sometimes globose when pressed, 3.0-4.0(-5.0) mm broad, dark gray to black below due to the exposed involucral bracts, white above due to the densely white-hairy tips of the perianth parts and bractlets. Surface of the receptacle smooth. Outer involucral bracts broadly ovate to orbicular, 1.0-1.3 mm long, 0.9-1.2 mm wide, smooth, dark gray to black, the tips rounded, entire. Receptacular bractlets about 1.0 mm long, broadly ovate, uniformly dark gray or slightly lighter yellowish or whitish at base, the apex densely white clavate hairy on the back and margin. Male flower: sepals gray- translucent, oblong, ca. 1.2 mm long, concave-curvate, obscurely keeled, the apex rounded, the outer apex and upper margin densely white clavate hairy. Petals subequad, pale, largely found in a narrowly cylindrical structure about 1.1 mm long, acute, the inner surface around the glands and the margins of the petal lobes with white clavate hairs. Anthers black, broadly ellipsoid, ca. 0.2 mm long, very slightly exserted or not exerted from the head on short white filaments. Female flower: sepals oblong, slightly curvate-keeled, ca. 1.0 mm long, gray- translucent, white clavate on the back and upper margin. Petals oblong, ca. 1.0 mm long, obtuse, the upper inner surfaces and upper margins white clavate hairy, the inner surface also densely hairy with long, clear, multiceUiilar trichomes, capsule light brown, bicarpeUate, 0.6-0.7 mm wide, ca. 0.3 mm high, seeds orbicular, ca. 0.3 mm long, very obscurely reticulate.
