Taxonomic realignment in the southern African Tetraria (Cyperaceae, tribe Schoeneae; Schoenus clade) * Author Elliott, T. L. Author Muasya, A. M. text South African Journal of Botany 2017 2017-09-30 112 354 360 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2017.06.011 journal article 10.1016/j.sajb.2017.06.011 1727-9321 10496466 6.1. Schoenus nigricans L. Schoenus nigricans ( Fig. 2A ) is the type species of one of the first 100 genera described by Linnaeus ( Linnaeus, 1753 ; Hitchcock, 1923 ), and a formal lectotype of this species was later designated by Simpson based on a Linnean specimen (LINN 68.6) collected from Gotland , Sweden ( Åsberg and Stearn, 1973 ; Jarvis, 1993 ). Key characters of S.nigricans include black basal sheaths that are notably wider than the leaf blades and loosely ovoid inflorescences with one or two bracts ( Tucker, 1993 ). In addition, S. nigricans generally has 10–25 flattened, oblong-ellipsoid spikelets with two to three sterile basal scales ( Fig. 2F ), as well as three to eight medially 1-veined floral scales (i.e. glumes) with acute apices ( Tucker, 1993 ). Furthermore, S. nigricans plants have whitish, ovoid to ellipsoid achenes that are glossy with obtuse apices ( Tucker, 1993 ). Schoenus nigricans is a sub-cosmopolitan species found in North America, Eurasia, Africa and Australia , often found growing in damp grasslands ( Fig. 3a : Tucker, 1993 ; Goetghebeur, 1998 ). In South Africa , S. nigricans specimens have been recorded and databased from the Western and Eastern Cape provinces (Copenhagen: Global Biodiversity Information Facility, 2014).