View source for Mapania

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Mapania (an aboriginal name). Cyperaceae. Grass like or sedge like plants, sometimes grown under cover for the foliage effects.

Stem very short, bearing long and often striking lvs.: scapes mostly leafless, bearing congested infl.: spikelet of 6 (sometimes 5) glumes: fr. a bony nut either dry or succulent.—There are perhaps 50 species in the tropics of both hemispheres, comprising strong often tall-lvd. perennial herbs. Two species, apparently good pot subjects, have been listed in recent years. M. pandanaefolia, Hort., is represented as dracena-like. caulescent, 3-4 ft. high, with long narrow graceful stiffish lvs. 24 in. long by 1 in. wide. G.C. III. 21:349. Gt. 46, p. 523. It is perhaps M. Pandanophyllum, Schum. & Hollr., which is M. hypolytroides, Benth.,  of Malay peninsula to Austral Pandanophyllum, Hypolytroides F. Muell. Hypolytrum, Pandanophyllum, F. Muell.). This much-named plant is separated by C. B. Clarke as Thoracostachyum hypolytroides, Clarke, a genus differing from Mapania in its corymbose rather than congested spikes. The lvs. are described as 4 ft. long and 1-2 in. broad, with scabrous edges: lowermost involucral bracts 1-2 ft. long and ½-1 in. broad, tapering to long points: spikelets very numerous, whitish.

Apparently the only other species recently offered regularly is M. humilis, Naves & Vill. (M. lucida, N.E. Br.). Rhizome short and woody, terminating in a short st. or crown bearing a top of densely equitant lvs., which are 2-3 ft. long, 3-nerved, sharp on margins and keel: scapes from the lower axils, the mature infl. ovoid, the bracts shorter than the head. India.
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