''Scleria'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the sedge family,

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...

. They are known commonly as nutrushes.''Scleria''.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System. They are distributed throughout the

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

world, and some have ranges extending into

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout t ...

areas.''Scleria''.
Flora of China. There are about 200 species. The genus name ''Scleria'' is Greek, meaning "hardness", in reference to the tough seeds. Plants of this genus are diverse in appearance. These are mostly perennial, but sometimes annual. Some have

rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

s. They produce solitary stems or clumps of many. They are a few centimeters tall to well over one meter. They have few leaves or many. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is variable, ranging from a single spikelet to over 100.''Scleria''.
Flora of North America. Despite the variety, examination of the fruits and subterranean structures is required to distinguish species.

References

External links

*Camelbeke, K. and P. Goetghebeur. (2002)
The genus ''Scleria'' (Cyperaceae) in Colombia. An updated checklist.
''Caldasia'' 24(2), 259–68. Cyperaceae genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Cyperaceae-stub