Brown Galingale
Scientific Name: Cyperus fuscus L.
Family: Cyperaceae
MORPHOLOGY
Habit and Size: An annual herbaceous plant, with highly variable height ranging from 3 to 20 cm, occasionally up to 40 cm.
Stems: Tufted-bushy stems, ascending-erect or more rarely diffuse, sharply trigonous, often reddish at the base.
Leaves: Leaves with a flat blade of 2-3 mm, often brown or reddish.
Flowers: Single apical glomerule or 2-4 forming a dense or spreading anthela. Bracts 2-4, leaf-like, channelled, 2-10 cm long, rarely up to 25 cm, longer than the inflorescence in any case. Lanceolate, spreading, short spikes, about 4 mm long, with about twenty flowers. Blooms from May to November.
Fruits and Seeds: The fruit is a caryopsis with an adherent pericarp.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
Present throughout Italy, it grows in marshes, wet sands, riverbeds, from sea level up to 1500 m.
Photo: Under a free license by Saxifraga and Ed Stikvoort, Rutger Barendse.
