Scleria levis Retz. APNI*
Description: Tall perennial with thick rhizome.
Culms glabrous to softly villous, 30–90 cm high, 1–3 mm diam.
Leaves equally distributed along culm, glabrous to densely pubescent, 5–8 mm wide; contraligule short; sheaths winged. Inflorescence narrow, panicle-like, 5–12 cm long, with 1-several rather distant clusters. Spikelets unisexual, in clusters of 2–4; male spikelets 3–4 mm long; female spikelets 4–6 mm long.
Nut-bearing glumes acute, mucronate, 3.5–4 mm long, glabrous, pale brown with dark red tinges. Stamens 3; anthers 1.3–2 mm long. Disk deeply 3-lobed; lobes thin, acute, often 2-toothed, 1–1.5 mm long, pale brown. Nut terete or obscurely trigonous, globose or broad-ovoid, shorter than glumes, 2–2.5 mm diam., smooth or slightly transversely wrinkled, sparsely pubescent, ultimately glabrescent, shining, white.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in forest and woodland, in Richmond R. area.
NSW subdivisions: NC
Other Australian states: Qld N.T.
Text by K. L. Wilson 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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