Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 42 (1753).

Derivation: Latin for some grass or reed; Greek schoinos.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: None

Description:
Tufted annuals or more often perennials with woody usually creeping rhizomes; leaves sometimes reduced to mucronate sheaths.

Spikelets 2-5-flowered, solitary, capitate or paniculate, the uppermost flowers often male or sterile; rhachilla prominently flexuose or zig-zag between the flowers; glumes distichous, the lower ones sometimes appearing somewhat spiral if the spikelets are crowded, some of the outer lower ones empty; stamens usually 3 (2 or 4-6 rarely in S. Aust. species); style branches 3; hypogynous bristles present or absent, linear-lanceolate to filiform, smooth, scabrous or plumose, sometimes broad, thick and scale-like.

Nut more or less trigonous, often 3-ribbed, in some species falling with the hypogynous bristles attached, in others the latter remain attached to the base of the flower.

Distribution:  About 80 species in Europe and South America (few), Asia and Australasia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Spikelet 1, terminal, very rarely with a second sessile one inserted a little lower down the stem; spikelets c. 6 mm or more long
2. Leaves reduced to their sheaths; hypogynous bristles represented by broad thick scales	S. tenuissimus 15.
2. Leaves well developed; hypogynous bristles linear-lanceolate to filiform, or absent
3. Stems usually much shorter than the leaves, never conspicuously longer, not more than 10 cm long; leaves basal; plant not floating
4. Leaf sheaths and glumes glabrous: hypogynous bristles absent; stems always very short
5. Rhizome absent, stems often few together; leaves not hard and rigid; spikelets 6-9 mm long	S. discifer 6.
5. Rhizomes creeping; plant mat-forming with densely tufted stems; leaves hard and rigid, often recurved; spikelets 9-11 mm long	S. breviculmis 3.
4. Mouth of leaf sheaths and margins of glumes densely ciliate; hypogynous bristles well developed, plumose; stems to c. 10 cm long	S. deformis 5.
3. Stems elongated and floating, very slender, with capillary leaves along them	S. fluitans 7.
1. Spikelets more than I on each stem or, if 1 or 2, only on weak specimens and then less than 6 mm long or else hypogynous bristles not plumose throughout
6. Spikelets all in a single capitate cluster, rarely reduced to 1 or 2
7. Leaves much longer than the culms which are hidden; plants forming dense mats	S. breviculmis 3.
7. Leaves not usually exceeding the inflorescence; plants not matted
8. Leaf blades obsolete	S. subaphyllus 14.
8. Leaf blades present
9. Annual, lacking a rhizome	S. nanus 10.
9. Perennial, with a rhizome
10. Spikelets 1-4; inflorescence bract usually much longer than the head	S. nitens 11.
10. Spikelets exceeding 5; inflorescence bract often not conspicuously longer than the inflorescence which appears terminal	S. subaphyllus 14.
6. Spikelets not all in a single head
11. Stems rush-like or long and wiry, leaves and bracts very short in proportion to the size of the plant, often reduced almost to points, the sheaths tight, brown, shining; inflorescence a terminal raceme or panicle; bristles very small or 0; rhizome prominent, often creeping
12. Glumes and leaf sheaths glabrous; nut smooth; stems wiry and slender, 30-75 mm long	S. carsei 4.
12. Glumes, at least when not over-mature, woolly-ciliate on the margins; nut rugose; stems c. 1 mm thick, rigid
13. Leaf sheaths glabrous at the mouth, sometimes 1 present in the upper part of the stem; scales at the base of the stem and on the rhizome purplish	S. brachyphyllus 2.
13. Leaf sheaths bearded at the mouth, all basal; scales on the rhizome yellowish-brown	S. racemosus 12.
11. Stems slender or short, never wiry, leaves and bracts prominent; spikelets more or less clustered in the axils of leafy bracts; the latter, at least the lower ones, much longer than the clusters; bristles often well developed; rhizome inconspicuous
14. Hypogynous bristles very short and few or absent
15. Annuals; nut reticulate; spikelets pale or brownish to purplish
16. Nuts minutely reticulate; leaf sheaths and spikelets pale	S. latelaminatus 8.
16. Nuts coarsely reticulate; leaf sheaths and spikelets brownish to purplish	S. sculptus 13.
15. Perennials; nut often smooth; spikelets blackish	S. tesquorum 16.
14. Hypogynous bristles almost as long as to slightly longer than the nut
17. Spikelets 2.5-3 mm long, 1-3 to each bract; nut smooth; stems more or less prostrate, sometimes branched	S. maschalinus 9.
17. Spikelets 4-6 mm long, few to several in the clusters, sometimes on rather long pedicels; stems more or less erect, not branched; nut more or less distinctly reticulate	S. apogon 1.

Author: Not yet available