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Lepidosperma latens K.L.Wilson
Family Cyperaceae
Lepidosperma latens K.L.Wilson APNI*

Description: Tufted perennial with short rhizome. Culms rigid, erect, biconvex, or convex on 1 face and ± flat on other, glabrous, smooth, 35–60 cm high, 3.5–4.5 mm wide; margins acute, cutting, readily erose with age, yellowish.

Leaves often flatter than culms or convex on 1 face, flat on the other, shorter than culms, 2.5–4 mm wide; sheath straw-coloured at apex, otherwise very dark brown to black, occasionally viscid, very smooth and ± shining.

Inflorescence ovate to oblong in outline, erect, 5–12 cm long, 2–4 cm diam.; involucral bract shorter than inflorescence. Spikelets ± few, 6–7 mm long. Glumes 5 or 6, red-brown with blackish apex and mucro, glabrous or puberulous; lowest 3 or 4 sterile, shorter than fertile glumes, obtuse to acute, mucronate; fertile 5.5–7.0 mm long, obtuse and mucronate to long-acute. Scales 6, about a quarter the length of nut, whitish to yellowish. Anthers 2.0–2.8 mm long, excluding appendage c. 0.5 mm long.

Nut narrow-ellipsoid to narrow-ovoid, c. 2.8 mm long, 1.2–1.4 mm diam., dark grey to red-brown, smooth, shining.


Herbarium
Sheet

Herbarium
Sheet

Flowering: Spring–summer.

Distribution and occurrence: Grows in heath and open woodland on sandy soils, most commonly in the Blue Mtns to the Budawang Ra., extending east to Sydney region and with apparently isolated occurrences on the Koonyum Ra.
NSW subdivisions: NC, CC, SC, CT, ST
AVH map***

Previously confused with L. laterale and L. viscidum. L. limicola has similar bases and biconvex culms but it has an oblong inflorescence with appressed clusters of spikelets, and has culm margins very scabrous, and grows in swamps.

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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