828.000 Eriocaulon L.

Description of the genus

Annual or perennial herbs. Involucral bracts scarious to coriaceous, spreading to reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts often white-hairy towards the tip. Flowers borne on a central receptacle; male and female mixed or female around the edge. Sepals free or ± connate in male flowers, usually free in the female. Petals usually with a black gland near or at the tip, often white-hairy at the tip. Male petals all small or one enlarged and exserted. Male flowers with stamens (in our species) 6 or 4, twice as many as the petals; anthers black or white. Female flowers with petals free. Seeds ellipsoid, smooth or distinctively patterned.

Derivation of name: from Greek: erion meaning wool, caulos meaning stem

Worldwide: c. 400 species in tropical and warm regions of the world; some temperate.

Zimbabwe: 22 taxa.

Links to taxa: View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

Species	FZ divisions	Content
abyssinicum Hochst.	N,W,C	Description, Image
africanum Hochst.	C,E
afzelianum Wikstr. ex Körn.	C
buchananii Ruhland	N,W,C
cinereum R. Br.	N,W
elegantulum Engl.	N,S
fuscum S.M. Phillips[End]	W	Description, Image
inyangense Arw.	E
maculatum Schinz	C
maronderanum S.M. Phillips	N,C
matopense Rendle[End][DD]	W,C,E	Description
mutatum N.E. Br. var. mutatum	C
mutatum N.E. Br. var. angustisepalum (H.E. Hess) S.M. Phillips	C
pictum Fritsch	W,C,E	Description, Image
setaceum L.	N,W,C
sonderianum Körn.	E	Description, Image
teusczii Engl. & Ruhland ex Ruhland	W,C,E,S
transvaalicum N.E. Br. subsp. hanningtonii (N.E. Br.) S.M. Phillips	C
transvaalicum N.E. Br. subsp. tofieldifolium (Schinz) S.M. Phillips	C	Image
transvaalicum N.E. Br. subsp. transvaalicum	C
welwitschii Rendle	W,C,S
wildii S.M. Phillips[End][DD]	E	Description

Other sources of information about Eriocaulon:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Eriocaulon
Flora of Burundi: Eriocaulon
Flora of Malawi: Eriocaulon
Flora of Mozambique: Eriocaulon
Flora of Zambia: Eriocaulon

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Eriocaulon
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Eriocaulon
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Eriocaulon
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Eriocaulon
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Eriocaulon
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Eriocaulon
JSTOR Plant Science: Eriocaulon
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Eriocaulon
Plants of the World Online: Eriocaulon
Tropicos: Eriocaulon
Wikipedia: Eriocaulon