''Isolepis'' is a cosmopolitan

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

sedge 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'' ...

containing around 70 species. ''Isolepis'' is found in cool tropical and temperate climates often in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

. ''Isolepis'' was first described by prolific botanist Robert Brown in 1810. In 1870 a botanist

Boeckeler Johann Otto Boeckeler (12 August 18035 March 1899) was a German apothecary-botanist of Oldenburg. He specialized in the plant family Cyperaceae ( sedges), of which, he was the binomial authority of many species. He is commemorated with the genus ...

disbanded the genus putting most of the names under a different genus, ''

Scirpus ''Scirpus'' is a genus of grass-like species in the sedge family Cyperaceae many with the common names club-rush, wood club-rush or bulrush (see also bulrush for other plant genera so-named). They mostly inhabit wetlands and damp locations. Taxo ...

''. By the early 20th century ''Isolepis'' ceased to exist with other botanists following on from Boeckler's work. It was not until the late 20th century that ''Isolepis'' was reinstated as a distinct genus due to

embryological Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, ''-logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...

research.

References

Cyperaceae genera Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Cyperaceae-stub

See also

References