Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Perennials with short and slightly thickened rhizomes.

Stems: culms 40–120 cm tall, 2–5 mm in diameter near base, trigonous, smooth or scabrid on angles below the inflorescence.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Leaves basal, crowded. Blades linear, shorter than to as long as the culm, 2–12mm wide, herbaceous to subcoriaceous. Margins flat or recurved. Sheaths reddish brown to dark brown. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences umbelliform, open to moderately dense, partially compound, 5–7 cm long, 8–15 cm wide, the rays 8–12, 1–10 cm long, the secondary rays 2–5 per spike, very short, the terminal spikes ovoid-cylindrical to oblong–elliptic, 1–2 cm long, 7–10 mm wide, the lateral spikes ovoid to ellipsoid, much smaller than the terminal ones, both kinds densely bearing numerous spikelets, bracteoles setaceous; involucral bracts 5–8, spreading to somewhat reflexed, the longer ones 2–3 times as long as the rays, 3–8 mm wide; spikelets bearing 4–6 glumes and 3–5 fertile flowers, weakly laterally flattened, divergent to somewhat reflexed, oblong–obovate to narrowly obdeltoid, 5–6 mm long, 1.5–2.5 mm wide, rachilla winged; glumes brown, membranous, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate–elliptic, 3.5–4.2 mm long, 1.2–1.6 mm wide, folded, indistinctly 5–7–nerved, midnerve prolonged into a mucro just below glume apex. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens 3. Ovary superior.

Fruit: Achenes oblong; trigonous; ca. 2 mm long; ca. 0.5 mm wide. Seeds 1; seed coat thin; free from pericarp; embryo basal; endosperm abundant.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Rare in wet forest on West Maui.

Elevation Range: