Scleria tricuspidata S.T.Blake APNI* 
Description: Slender tufted annual.
Culms very slender, glabrous or somewhat pubescent, usually retrorsely scabrous, 5–30 cm high, 1–2 mm diam.
Leaves often all reduced to bladeless or shortly bladed sheaths, 2–4 mm wide; contraligule short. Inflorescence narrow, much longer than culm, to 40 cm long, consisting of 3–5 very distant clusters. Spikelets male, female and bisexual; male spikelets 3–4 mm long; nut-bearing spikelets 4.5–5 mm long.
Nut-bearing glumes acute, mucronulate, 4–4.5 mm long, glabrous or often scabrous on midrib, white to pale brown. Stamens 2 or rarely 3; anthers 1–1.5 mm long. Disk shallow, ± triangular, with very narrow reflexed margins and an erect mucro at each corner, pale brown. Nut obtusely trigonous, narrow-ellipsoid, shorter than glumes, 2–2.5 mm long, 1.7–2 mm diam., wrinkled, somewhat tuberculate above, often sparsely pubescent, ± dull, white to pale grey.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in swampy places, on sandy soil; north from Grafton 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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