Cyperus flavoculmis
Cyperus flavoculmis is a species of sedge endemic to Kenya. It is a critically endangered species known from only one location, a salt marsh in the Machakos District.
Cyperus flavoculmis was described in 1983 by botanist Kåre Arnstein Lye, based on a holotype specimen collected by Lye himself in June of 1971. The description was published in the second issue of volume three of the Nordic Journal of Botany.
Distribution and habitat
Cyperus flavoculmis is known only from its type locality, a salt marsh in the Machakos District situated alongside the Nairobi–Mombasa Road at above sea level, where it grows at the edges of seasonal pools.
Description
Cyperus flavoculmis is a robust perennial sedge growing to approximately tall. Arising from a thick upright woody rhizome, the triangular culms are long and wide. The culms are mostly smooth and yellow in colour on at least the lower half. The basal leaves, each measuring approximately long and wide, are flat and linear with a pointed tip and a roughened texture along the margins and veins. The long leaf sheaths are green and yellow, becoming purple towards the base, with transparent margins. The inflorescence bears five or six leaf-like involucral bracts, each measuring up to long and wide. The inflorescence itself is a compound anthela growing to long with seven to eight primary branches. The spikelets occur in loose clusters of six to thirty on straight rachia. The glumes are obovate and reddish-brown in colour with a narrow transparent margin. The flower bears three stamens and a three-branched style.