Plants of
South Australia
Isolepis platycarpa
Cyperaceae
Flat-fruit Club-sedge,
Flat-fruit Club-rush
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Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
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Oodnadatta
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Wudinna
Keith
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 3

Prior names

Scirpus platycarpus

Common names

Flat-fruit Club-sedge

Flat-fruit Club-rush

Etymology

Isolepis, from the Greek 'isos' meaning equal and 'lepis', meaning scale, referring to the glumes. Platycarpa, from the Greek 'platys', meaning broad and flat and 'karpos', meaning fruit.

Distribution and status

Found in the southern part of South Australia growing in moist areas. Also found in New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Native. Common 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 8 cm high. Stems setaceous; leaf blades to 3 cm long and setaceous, sometimes absent; bract sometimes longer than the cluster; similar to the leaves, to 5 mm long. Spikelets 1 or 2, often solitary; ovoid-ellipsoid, to 3.5 mm long, (similar to those of I. hookeriana but rather broader and less distinctly angled); glumes to 1.5 mm long, with spreading points, the sides somewhat opaque. Flowering between September and April. Fruits are brown fruit-head with 1-2 spikelets in clusters at the end of stems. Seeds are brown globular seed to 0.9 mm long and 0.6 mm wide, with a low and small ovoid mesh-liked surface. Seed embryo type is capitate.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between September and May. Collect fruits by picking off the mature heads; those turning brown and that 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 brown 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. From one collection, the seed viability was high, at 95%.

Seeds stored:
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LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)
Number
of plants
Date
collected
Collection number
Collection location
Date
stored
% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA4,800 (0.61 g)5002-Oct-2007RJB75084
South Eastern
19-Sep-200895%-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.