Common name: Flat Spike-sedge
Eleocharis plana S.T.Blake APNI* 
Description: Perennial with creeping rhizome.
Culms tufted, flat to slightly plano-convex, to 80 cm high, 2–4 mm diam.
Spikelet narrow-cylindrical, 10–20(-40) mm long. Glumes acute, faintly keeled, margins broadly hyaline, 3.5–4 mm long, straw-coloured, red-tinged to ± evenly dark red-brown. Bristles 6–8, slender, flattened and broad at the base, retrorsely scabrous, about as long as nut. Stamens 3; anthers 1.5–3.1 mm long. Style 3-fid.
Nut biconvex, with the angles obtuse, obovoid, 1.2–1.8 mm long, c. 1 mm diam., shining, bright yellow to brown; external cells minute; style base about half as long and wide as nut.
Flowering: spring–summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Widespread inland, rarely extending east to tablelands and coast; also in Queensland and South Australia. Grows in moist situations.
NSW subdivisions: CC, ST, NWS, CWS, SWS, NWP, SWP, NFWP, SFWP
Other Australian states: Qld S.A.
Very close to E. acuta, differing most obviously in the strongly flattened culms.
Text by K. L. Wilson (1993; revised Sept 2006)
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 4 (1993)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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