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''Scleranthus diander'' commonly known as tufted knawel, is a flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, it grows in eastern states of Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. It is a small, spreading herb with white or light green flowers.
''Scleranthus diander'' commonly known as tufted knawel, is a flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae, it grows in eastern states of Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. It is a small, spreading herb with white or light green flowers.
Description
''Scleranthus diander'' is a small, spreading, multi-stemmed perennial herb that forms a mat or with trailing stems and up to wide. The leaves are pale green, crowded, linear, triangular in cross-section, long, wide, smooth, more or less keeled and a pointed tip long. The pale green or white flowers are mostly sessile, obscure or on a botany long, and borne in clusters at the end of branches or in leaf axils. Thebract
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...
s are sharply tipped, cream-coloured, usually longer than the flowers, calyx
Calyx or calyce (plural "calyces"), from the Latin ''calix'' which itself comes from the Ancient Greek ''κάλυξ'' (''kálux'') meaning "husk" or "pod", may refer to:
Biology
* Calyx (anatomy), collective name for several cup-like structures ...
more or less pointed, spreading and mostly longer than the floral tube. Flowering occurs usually from October to January and the fruit is a ribbed nutlet
A nut is a fruit consisting of a hard or tough nutshell protecting a kernel which is usually edible. In general usage and in a culinary sense, a wide variety of dry seeds are called nuts, but in a botanical context "nut" implies that the shell ...
, long and wide.
Taxonomy
''Scleranthus diander'' was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown and the description was published in '' Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae''. Thespecific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
(''diander'') means "two stamens".
Distribution and habitat
Tufted knawel grows in woodland, grassland, pastures and dry habitats in eastern states of Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.References
Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Caryophyllaceae {{Caryophyllaceae-stub