Fimbristylis velata
R.Br. Veiled Fringe-rushSmall densely tufted annual. Culms compressed, 5–25 cm high, 0.5–1 mm diam. Leaves shorter than culms, ± softly hairy at least on sheaths, 0.3–1 mm wide; ligule absent. Inflorescence compound, with several to many solitary spikelets, on branches to 5 cm long; involucral bracts leaf-like, softly hairy, 1–4 shorter than to equalling inflorescence. Spikelets ovoid, angular, acute, 4–7 mm long, 1–1.5 mm diam; glumes thinly membranous, ± acute, with 3-nerved acute keel excurrent in a straight or slightly excurved mucro to 0.3 mm long, glabrous or pubescent, straw-coloured, 1.5–2 mm long; stamen 1; anther 0.2–0.3 mm long; style 2-fid, sparsely ciliate above with a basal whorl of long-whitish hairs, deflexed and closely appressed to nut and at least partially covering it in the upper half. Nut biconvex, with acute angles, obovoid, shortly stipitate, obscurely reticulate by the isodiametric epidermal cells, shining, straw-coloured, 0.6–0.8 mm long, c. 0.5 mm diam. Flowers spring–summer.
LoM, MuM, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, GipP, CVU, HSF, HNF, OtR. Also WA, NT, SA, Qld, NSW. Asia, Malesia. Occasional on drying mud beside lakes and rivers and in seasonally wet depressions; mostly in northern Victoria, but recent collections in the south from, for example, Bairnsdale and Healesville areas.
Wilson, K.L. (1994). Cyperaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 2, Ferns and Allied Plants, Conifers and Monocotyledons, pp. 238–356. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
