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Juncotypus, the lowest involucral bract is culm-like and appears to be a continuation of 
the culm.The length of these involucral bracts relative to the associated inflorescence 
is often characteristic for a species. A specialised 2-keeled bract, the prophyll, is present 
adaxially above the bract at the base of inflorescence branches. Prophylls are most 
readily seen on the main inflorescence branches of fresh specimens with expanded 
inflorescences. 
Floivers are generally numerous in an inflorescence, but are occasionally reduced to 
just a few flowers, as in J. snndwithii; this, of course, can also be the case with 
depauperate individuals of other species. Flowers are solitary or in dense (many- 
flowered) or loose (few-flowered) clusters. There is some intraspecific variation in 
number of clusters and in number of flowers per cluster. Each flower is on a pedicel 
(ultimate inflorescence branch), which is subtended by a small rather papery floral 
bract. Besides the bract, two small, papery bracteoles are present below each flower in 
subgenus Poiophylli (represented in Malesia only by sections Temgeia and Juncotypus). 
These bracteoles are what Buchenau (1890, 1906 and other references therein) 
confusingly referred to as prophylls. In some species, there may appear to be three 
bracteoles below the flower, which Barnard (1958) explains as (2 bracteoles + 1 bract), 
resulting from abortion of a lateral branch below the flower leaving only the floral 
bract associated with that lateral branch. In other species, the number of 'extra' bracts 
below the flower may be as high as three (e.g. in the Australian /. homalocaulis F. Muell. 
ex Benth., pers. obs.). Inexperienced observers may even count the 2-keeled prophyll 
in small, crowded inflorescences as an extra bracteole since the keels are sometimes 
obscure and the prophyll is often of similar colour and texture to the bracts and 
bracteoles. Given the difficulty of interpretation, using bracteoles as a key character for 
identification may cause confusion and should not be relied on. 
The six tepals are in two whorls, which often differ in their features. The outer three 
tepals tend to be somewhat convex and may be cucullate towards the apex, while the 
inner three tepals are usually more or less flat and are often broader and more obtuse 
than the outer. For the descriptions, the length of convex tepals is measured around the 
curve. Nearly all tepals begin green but by maturity have usually become straw- 
coloured (this is, of course, accentuated when dried) or in some species red-brown, 
rarely so dark as to appear black. Only colour at maturity is given in descriptions. 
The loculidal capsules are unilocular (e.g. J. leschenaultii), 3-Iocular (e.g. /. decipiens) or 
3-septate (i.e. incompletely 3-locular; /. nupela fide J.F. Veldkamp 1977), with 
corresponding parietal or axillary placentation (Satake 1933 and references therein). 
As pointed out by Balslev (1996), the septa (called placentas or partitions by some 
authors) occasionally develop late, so care is needed in interpreting the structure of 
immature capsules, especially when dried. In some species, the capsule is 3-locular but 
with the septa separating near the apex so that it looks 3-septate apically (as discussed 
and illustrated for J. confusus by Catling and Spicer 1987: fig. 7). 
Capsule length relative to the tepals is characteristic for a species. The apex of the capsule 
is acute to obtuse and mucronate in most species, but in some species in section 
Ozophyllum (notably /. leptospermus Buchenau, ]. papillosus Franch. & Sav., 
/. prismatocarpus, J. sandwithi and J. wallichianus p.p.) the capsule is elongated into a 
beak that often much exceeds the tepals. 
All Malesian species are wind-pollinated so far as known, except that /. bufonius is 
mostly or possibly exclusively cleistogamous (Buchenau 1906: 27; Knuth 1909; Arber 
1925; Snogerup 1985; Keighery 1985, fig. 1). Barros (1953: 286) and Keighery (1985) 
suggested that species are generally cross-pollinated, owing to flower development 
being usually protogynous (Muller 1883: 561) but that all are also capable of self- 
fertilization, particularly through cleistogamy. In practical terms, this can often be 
