Eriocaulon fergusonii

[Melanie]

Five endemic members are among the sixteen aquatics in the genus Eriocaulon where one species, Eriocaulon fergusonii (Moldenke)
S.M. Phillips, was recorded from marshlands of Colombo and Galle districts and is considered
under Probably Extinct category (CR(PE)).

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[Melanie]

Eriocaulon fergusonii (Moldenke) SM. Phillips, Kew Bull. 49: 294. 1994.

Eriocaulon willdenovianum var. fergusonii Moldenke, Phytologia 28: 401 1974. Type: Ceylon, Colombo, Cinnamon Gardens. Ferguson s.n. (PDA, holotype).

Tufted perennial; plant base densely woolly. Leaves narrowly linear, 20—40 cm long. 2—4 mm wide, often folded, opaque, villous on the lower surface. Scapes up to c.10 per plant, 50—65 cm high, 1.2—1.5 mm in diameter, 7—9 ribbed; sheaths obliquely slit, long-exserted beyond the scape emergence, acute. Capitulum 7—8 mm wide, hard, hemispherical to conical with a truncate base, dirty white; involucral bracts shorter than the capitulum width, straw-yellow. coriaceous. shining, outwardly spreading, the outer broadly rounded and laciniate, the inner subacute; floral bracts tightly imbricate, inflexed and enclosing the flowers, coriaceous from a hyaline base, broadly angulate-obovate, white-hoary upwards; receptacle pilose with hairs 1 mm long. Flowers 3-merous. strongly laterally compressed, pallid, c.2.25 mm long. Male flowers clavate. sepals connate except at the tip, enclosing the corolla, the lateral winged, a few minute white papillae across the truncate tips: petals 0.3 mm long, glandular and white-papillose; anthers black. Female flowers rhombic: lateral sepals navicular, gibbous, broadly winged on the keel, narrowed to a basal claw, minutely white-papillose along the upper wing margin and obtuse tip, median sepal much narrower; petals subulate, laterals 2.0 x 0.2 mm with an elongate, glandular, white-papillose tip, very sparsely hairy on the inner face with hyaline hairs 0.5 mm long, median petal glabrous. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.7 mm long, reddish-brown, faintly striate,

Distr. Endemic to the western lowlands.
Ecol. Marshland, Fl. January—March.

Notes E fergusonii is a seldom collected, apparently very local species sometimes confused with both E. sexangulare and E. willdenovianum. Besides its hairy leaves it can be distinguished from E. willdenovianum by its trimerous flowers and more vigorous habit, and from E. sexangulare by its female petals without a brush of long hairs.

Specimens Examined. COLOMBO DISTRICT: Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, March 1883. Ferguson s.n. (PDA). GALLE DISTRICT: Baddegama, Alston 1069 (K, PDA). LOCALITY UNKNOWN: s.coll. s.n., Herb. Hook. (K).

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