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Gahnia javanica Moritzi

Synonym	:	Mariscus javanicus (Moritzi) Kuntze
Family	:	Cyperaceae
Distribution	:	Asia to Australia and the Pacific Islands.
Habitat	:	Marshy areas in degraded forests and mangrove forests, also in the plains
Key Botanical Characters. Perennials, with short woody rhizomes, often forming large tussocks, often branching at the base, short or tall; stems leafy throughout; leaves terete and furrowed along the inside or with involute margins so as to appear terete, always ending in a long subulate point; bracts similar to the leaves, the upper ones gradually shorter. Spikelets paniculate, rarely almost spicate, blackish or very dark-brown in most species, with 1 bisexual flower and usually 1 male flower below it; glumes spirally imbricate, 3 to many outer ones empty, the flowering glumes almost always thinner and smaller than the others; no hypogynous bristles; stamens 3-6, the filaments often lengthening and persistent so that the nut remains suspended by them after it has fallen from the spikelet; style slender, not thickened at the base, deciduous,3-branched.