atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

Tradescantia fluminensis Vell. "wandering Jew"
Recent introduction. S. America. Rare. A trailing perennial herb with green or
purplish wiry stems; leaves, 2.5 to 7.5 cm long, oblong, bright green or white-striped,
sometimes purplish beneath; flowers, small rose-purple to whitish, each with two leafy
bracts. Ornamental pot plant. 6.
Zebrina pendula Schnizl. "purple wandering Jew"
Recent introduction. Mexico. Occasional. A fleshy trailing perennial herb; leaves,
up to 6 cm long, ovate, reddish-purple beneath and silver-green with purple bands down
the middle and around the edges above; flowers, 3-petaled, pink to rose-purple, borne in
bract-like leaves near stem tips. Ornamental pot plant. 3(56780), 5, 6, 7.
CYPERACEAE (Sedge Family)
Cyperus alternifolius L. "umbrella plant", "umbrella sedge"
Recent introduction. Madagascar. Rare. Tufted sedge with many stout dark green
flowering stems, up to 120 cm or higher; basal leaves reduced to lanceolate, acurninate
sheaths, 10 to 20 cm long; flower heads, terminal, umbel-like, composed of arching leaf-
like bracts, up to 25 cm long and 1 cm wide, borne at the end of stems, and umbel-like
inflorescences, 7 cm across, on rays, up to 10 cm long, with numerous spikelets, up to 3
cm long, crowded at the tips; fruit, 3-angled achene, less than 1 mm long. Planted
ornamental. 6, 7.
Cyperus compressus L. 'I sedge"
Recent introduction? Pan tropical. Occasional. Tufted sedge with erect to
spreading thin triangular stems, up to 40 cm long; leaves, 1.5 to 3 mm wide, threadlike,
shorter than sheathing stems, which are up to 3 cm long, and often reddish; spikelets, 1
to 2.5 cm long and 3 to 5 mm wide, green, 12 or more borne in umbellate clusters
subtended by 3 or more leaf-like bracts, each about 3 mm long; fruit, a 3-angled,
obovoid achene, sides slightly concave, brown to almost black. Weed growing in rather
dense populations in low ground near Buada Lagoon and swampy area near bottom of
escarpment. 3(58644), 6.
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