Leptocarpus tenax

Slender Twine-rush

Family:            Restionaceae

Plant:              A sedge up to 70cm high with male and female flowers on separate plants.

Flowers:         Male spikelets are a rich purplish-brown, 2-4mm long and very numerous in a drooping panicle-like inflorescence borne at the ends of erect stems. The female spikelets are reddish, 12mm long and are borne in only a few erect spikes. The flower stems are erect, up to 1m high, 1-2mm diameter and are greyish-green in colour.

Flowering:      October-December.

Fruit:               A 1-3mm long narrow pale nut.

Leaves:          Reduced to dark reddish brown leaf sheaths along the flowering stems.

Habitat:           Common in damp to wet heathland.

Features:       Male and female plants completely different in appearance. Greyish-green stems. Reddish-brown leaf sheaths.

Name:            

Leptocarpus  From Greek = slender-fruit

tenax               From Latin = holding-fast

Search Criteria

 

Type

Sedge/Rush           

Flowers

Form

Irregular, Cluster,

 

Colour(s)

Red, Rust, Rust

 

Petal/Sepal No.

-

 

Flowering Month

10, 11, 12

Fruit

Type       

Other

 

Colour

Brown

 

Other Features

Hard

Leaves

Arrangement

Absent/Reduced

 

Type       

-

 

Shape

-

 

Length    

Tiny

 

Margins  

-

 

Attachment

Stem-clasping

 

Other Features

-

Bark

-

Habitat

Heathland