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Telopea 8 ( 4 ): 2000 
Key to species 
1 Plants not caespitose, forming patches of widely spaced culms or small groups of 
culms connected by long rhizomes; culm sheaths and inflorescence spathes ciliate 
with stiff hairs. L. barbata 
1* Plants caespitose, rhizomes erect or shortly horizontal, with crowded culms; culm 
sheaths and inflorescence spathes glabrous or sparsely or strongly ciliate . 2 
2 Culms 30-100 cm tall, straight or sinuous, intemodes 5-11 cm long; culm sheaths 
and inflorescence spathes glabrous or sparsely ciliate with hairs 0.5-2 mm long; 
bracts at base of culms closely appressed and with an awn-like lamina 2-10 mm 
long; female inflorescence flowering at 1-5 upper culm nodes; fertile spathes each 
subtending a single flower . L. imberbis 
2* Culms 50-150 cm tall, straight, internodes 14-25 cm long ; culm sheaths and 
inflorescence spathes ciliate with stiff hairs 3-6 mm long; bracts at base of culms ± 
flat in the upper half and not closely appressed, with a small mucro or an awn 1-4 
mm long; female inflorescence flowering at 4- 7 upper culm nodes; fertile female 
spathes each subtending 1-3 flowers. L. excelsa 
Lyginia barbata R. Br., Prodr. 248 (1810) 
Lyginia barbata var. barbata 
Type citation: (M) v.v. 
Type: Western Australia: King George III d S d [Sound], R. Brown (Bennett No. 5838), 
1802-5 5 , 9 (holo BM [annotated by Brown 'Nov genus inter Restionem']; iso BM, E, P). 
[Note on typification. At the International Botanical Congress in 1999 a change was 
accepted in Article 8.1 of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature to avoid 
unnecessary lectotype designations" narrowing down the type to a single individual 
or fragment thereof' (Greuter & Hawkesworth 1999). The definition of a type (Barrie 
& Greuter 1999) now emphasises that 'a specimen is a gathering, or part of a gathering, 
of a single species ... or of multiple small plants'. Discussion at the meeting confirmed 
the acceptability of male and female plants of the same taxon within a gathering for 
purposes of typification. Lectotypes are here designated in some instances where what 
appears to be a single gathering is mounted on more than one sheet and these are not 
cross-referenced, but no selection of a lectotype is made between 6 and 9 specimens 
of the same taxon mounted on a single sheet.] 
Rhizomatous, forming large patches of widely separated culms or of groups of several 
culms, 2-14 cm apart. Rhizomes, horizontal or ascending; 3-6 mm diam. including the 
covering of dark brown, appressed, usually glossy scales; intemodes 0.5-1.3 mm long. 
Culms straight and erect or sinuous, smooth or minutely rugose, 30-80 cm tall, 1.3-2 
mm diam.; with 4-8 intemodes, each 5-18 cm long. Sheaths at base of culms 
± truncate, 10-18 mm long, closely enwrapping the culms, ciliate, with an awn 4-8 mm 
long. Culm sheaths 6-15 mm long, green or red-brown, truncate or tapering abruptly 
at the apex, ciliate at apex with hairs 2.5-6 mm long, lax toward apex, with a curved, 
lack awn 6—13 mm long. Culm spathes acute, rigid; 6-13 in male inflorescences, 1-4 
in female inflorescences, each subtending only a single flower, or culms with several 
closely spaced spathes but only the uppermost subtending a flower; spathes 4-12 mm 
ong, ciliate with stiff hairs, with a rigid curved awn as long or longer than the spathe. 
Lateral branches of male inflorescences condensed or extending beyond the culm 
spathe and with small spathes conspicuous on the lateral branches, to 2.5 cm long, 
ale flowers: tepals hyaline, narrow lanceolate, shortly ciliate at apex, acuminate or 
