Fuirena Rottb. ( Rottboll 1773: 70)

Fuirena Rottb. ( Rottboll 1773: 70)

Type species.

Fuirena umbellata Rottb.

Description of the genus.

Annuals or rhizomatous perennials. Culms many-noded, rarely scapose, 3-5-sided, sometimes thickened at base. Leaves usually well developed, basal and cauline, ligule tubular, membranous, with blade often reduced in lower leaves (rarely all leaf blades reduced). Involucral bracts leaf-like, usually sheathing, lowermost bract sometimes erect. Inflorescence terminal (in reduced inflorescences, bract may be erect, but clearly leaf-like), paniculate to capitate with few to many spikelets. Glumes many, spirally arranged or rarely pentastichously arranged, deciduous, each subtending a flower, often pubescent, the apex entire and mucronate to awned. Floret bisexual. Perianth present, as long or shorter than nutlet, formed by 3 parts, or when 6 in 2 whorls, the inner parts scale-like, the outer parts bristle-like, rarely all parts reduced or absent or only 1 scale developed, deciduous with the fruit. Stamens 1-3. Style 3-fid, base persistent, barely thickened, if at all. Nutlets obovate, triquetrous to trigonous, frequently stipitate, smooth or variously ornamented. Embryo turbinate to weakly fungiform with a horizontally broadened scutellum, first leaf primordium not strongly outgrown, the second leaf primordium either absent or poorly developed.

Distribution and ecology.

Fuirena is a cosmopolitan genus ( POWO 2022). It grows in seasonally wet grasslands, freshwater wetlands, on sand or in rocky areas. Fuirena occurs throughout Madagascar; seven species are known including e.g. Fuirena pubescens (Poir.) Kunth (Figs 8C View Figure 8 , 19 View Figure 19 ).