Empodisma L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler

Wagstaff, Steven J. & Clarkson, Beverley R., 2012, Systematics and ecology of the Australasian genus Empodisma (Restionaceae) and description of a new species from peatlands in northern New Zealand, PhytoKeys 13, pp. 39-79 : 57

Empodisma L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler

Type species.

Empodisma minus (Hook.f.) L.A.S.Johnson & D.F.Cutler

Description.

Perennial herbs forming dense tangled masses, dioecious. Rhizomes stout up to 8.0 mm diam., covered with light brown, imbricate, scale-like sheaths and very thick tufts of brown hairs. Roots crowded, densely covered with persistent root hairs. Culms evergreen, hollow, dark to light green, profusely branching. Lamina reduced, awl-shaped, persistent, light green when young maturing dark brown, strongly reflexed from the leaf sheath. Leaf sheaths open, but overlapping and closely appressed, borne at short intervals, straw-coloured early in the season maturing dark brown, mouth ciliate with a tuft of woolly white hairs. Spikelets unisexual, borne in ultimate branch systems produced in second or third year, sessile or on short pedicels. Glumes imbricate; bracteoles lacking. Perianth segments 6, narrowly ovate almost hyaline. Male spikelets with 1-6 flowers, sessile to shortly pedicellate. Stamens 3, exserted beyond the perianth segments; filaments uniform; anthers linear oblong, dorsifixed, 1-celled, dehiscence along longitudinal slits, straw-coloured. Female spikelets solitary, each spikelet with 1- rarely 2 - flowers sessile to pedicillate. Ovary 1-celled; style branches 2 or 3, filiform, deciduous. Ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit 1-seeded nut, ovoid with a thick and swollen base. 2n = 24. Fruit development is protracted with the seeds maturing in the following winter or early spring.

Key to species of Empodisma

1	Robust plants forming dense tangled thickets; culms> 1 mm in diameter at base of the plant; sheaths mostly>7.5 mm long; spikelets> 6.0 mm long	Empodisma robustum
-	Slender and/or diminutive plants; culms mostly <1 mm in diameter, sheaths mostly <7.5 mm long; spikelets generally <6.0 mm	2.
2	Culms dark green, 18-80 cm in height (some plants rarely to 1.2 m in Eastern Australia); female spikelets sessile to shortly pedicellate	2. Empodisma minus
-	Culms light green, 55-130 cm in height; spikelets borne on pedicels up to 20 mm long	3. Empodisma gracillimum