Plants of
South Australia
Isolepis hookeriana
Cyperaceae
Hooker's Club-rush,
Grassy Club-rush
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Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
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Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
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Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
Yunta
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock painting: 1

Prior names

Scirpus hookerianus

Scirpus calocarpus

Common names

Hooker's Club-rush

Grassy Club-rush

Etymology

Isolepis, from the Greek 'isos', meaning equal and 'lepis', meaning scale, referring to the glumes. Hookeriana named after Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century, a founder of geographical botany and director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

Distribution and status

Found on the Eyre and Yorke Peninsulas, Kangaroo Island, Flinders Ranges and the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia,growing in seasonally wet areas and creek banks. Also found in all States except the Northern Territory. Native. Uncommon in South Australia. Common in the other States.
Herbarium regions: Flinders Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Northern and Yorke, South Australian Arid Lands, South Australian Murray-Darling Basin, South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

Small tufted annual sedge to 12 cm high. Stems setaceous; leaf blades to 3 mm long, filiform, more often absent; bract shorter or longer than the cluster, somewhat glume-like. Spikelets 1 or 2 in a cluster; oblique, ovoid to oblong, angular; several-flowered, to 3.5 mm long; glumes to 1.5 mm long, 5-7-nerved, with a green keel, the lateral nerves faint, the tip spreading. Flowering between September to February. Fruits are few brown ovoid fruit-head in clusters at the end of stems. Seeds are shiny brown globular seed to 0.6 mm long and 0.5 mm wide with a rectangular course reticulate surface. Seed embryo type is capitate.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between November and April. Collect fruits by picking off the mature heads; those turning brown and come-off easily. Place the heads in a tray and leave to dry for one to two weeks. Then rub the heads with a rubber bung to dislodge the seeds. Use a sieve to separate any unwanted material. Be careful, as the seeds are very small. Seeds are black and hard. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place.

Seeds stored:
  Hide
LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
 
MSB

6,900 (1.27 g)
5021-Oct-2007RJB74961
Southern Lofty
100%
BGA16,000 (1.87 g)501-Nov-2007RJB75135
Southern Lofty
19-Sep-2008100%-18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.