Habit: Annual, perennial herb, scapose, rhizomed or not.
Stem: +- cylindric or flat, often prominent-ridged, <= 1 mm diam.
Leaf: several, basal, spiraled, flower stem with 1+ cauline; blade flat proximally, longest > sheath, <= 4 mm wide; sheath distally open, margin scabrous, tip hairs << 1 mm, stiff; ligule 0 or of short hairs.
Inflorescence: 1, terminal, branched or head-like, inflorescence bracts (1)2--8; spikelets (1)80+, cylindric [(flat)]; flower bracts 8--100, spiraled, each with 1 flower in axil or occasionally 0 in proximal 1--2, membranous, glabrous or puberulent, tip entire, mucronate, or short-awned.
Flower: bisexual; perianth 0; style often flat, 2[3]-branched, base enlarged, not persistent.
Fruit: 2--3-sided, wide-obovate, minute-netted-honeycombed, occasionally warty, brown or +- white, mucronate.
Ecology: Generally moist to wet places.
Species In Genus: 100+ species: warm temperate to tropics.
Etymology: (Latin: fimbria, fringe, and stylus, style)
Note: Fimbristylis miliacea record (1866) undocumented for California.
Jepson eFlora Author: S. Galen Smith
Reference: Kral 2002 FNANM 23:121--131
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Fimbristylis
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