Eriocaulon crassiusculum Lye

Eriocaulaceae, Sylvia Phillips. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1997

Morphology General Habit

Rosulate herb from an abbreviated rootstock, probably a short-lived perennial.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves narrowly lanceolate, 2–8 cm. long, 2–3 mm. wide, light green, fenestrate, tapering to a hardened obtuse tip, often with a pore on the upper surface.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Scape

Scapes 1–12, slender, up to 35 cm. high and much exceeding the basal leaf rosette, 6–7-ribbed; sheaths equalling or a little longer than the leaves, loose, slightly inflated towards the oblique mouth, the limb with a scarious acute tip.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Capitulum

Capitulum depressed-globose, 5–7 mm. diameter, creamy-white sometimes with a grey tinge, the white-hairy flowers visible among the pallid bracts; involucral bracts in several series subequalling the capitulum width, pale straw-coloured, thinly cartilaginous, 2.0–2.6 mm. long, obovate-oblong, rounded becoming lacerate, slightly downturned but not strongly reflexing at maturity; floral bracts resembling the involucral in colour and texture, angular-oblanceolate to spathulate, the outer acute, the inner cuspidate and thinly white-pilose on the back; receptacle pilose; flowers trimerous, 1.5–2.4 mm. long, pallid.

sex Male

Male flowers:sepals free or connate only at the base, the two lateral keeled, ovate-oblong, densely white-pilose towards the rounded tips, median sepal narrower and ± flat; petals small, white-pilose with small glands, longest petal ± 0.8 mm. long; anthers black.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers

Female flowers:sepals very unequal, two oblong-navicular, the keel broadly winged in the lower half, the wing abruptly ending at the midpoint, sometimes in a tooth, white-pilose above the wing to the obtuse tip, median sepal linear, unwinged; petals linear-oblong, subequal, white-pilose on the inner face and some hairs also on the outer face, eglandular or one or more petals with a small gland. Male flowers:sepals free or connate only at the base, the two lateral keeled, ovate-oblong, densely white-pilose towards the rounded tips, median sepal narrower and ± flat; petals small, white-pilose with small glands, longest petal ± 0.8 mm. long; anthers black.

sex Female

Female flowers:sepals very unequal, two oblong-navicular, the keel broadly winged in the lower half, the wing abruptly ending at the midpoint, sometimes in a tooth, white-pilose above the wing to the obtuse tip, median sepal linear, unwinged; petals linear-oblong, subequal, white-pilose on the inner face and some hairs also on the outer face, eglandular or one or more petals with a small gland.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds broadly elliptic, 0.5 mm. long, brown with white-fringed transverse lines.

Habitat

Open areas in the wet mud of swamps or in shallow, slow-flowing water, with sedges and often Miscanthus; 1100–1250 m.

Distribution

U1 U4