Schoenoplectiella bucharica  

Schoenoplectiella bucharica (Roshev.) Hayasaka (syn.: Schoenoplectus bucharicus (Roshev.) Grossh., Scirpus bucharicus Roshev.) (SW As., Iraq) – An exceptional and probably ephemeral alien. A small population was discovered in 2014 on the verge of the Albertkanaal in Antwerpen. Schoenoplectiella bucharica grows in shallow depressions of a broken up railway track, close to a former (now demolished) grain mill. In the past several exceptional Central Asian grain aliens have been recorded in the same area, e.g. Elsholtzia ciliata and Lepyrodiclis holosteoides (Verloove 2003). Schoenoplectiella bucharica is a rice field weed and was possibly formerly introduced with agricultural products, e.g. rice.

Despite being an agricultural weed, Schoenoplectiella bucharica has rarely been recorded outside its native distribution range. It was originally confined to a relatively small area in western Asia (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan; Hayasaka 2002) and was recently reported for the first time from European Russia (Laktionov& al. 2013). It is readily distinguished from similar species by the presence of dark brown perianth bristles up to twice as long as the achene, the finely transversely corrugate achenes, the inflorescence with ca. 5-15 sessile spikelets and the long involucral bract (Rozhevits 1964).

Selected literature:

Hayasaka E. (2002) Taxonomic revision of the genus Schoenoplectus (Cyperaceae), with special reference to nutlet morphology. PhD thesis, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.

Laktionov A.P., Papchenkov V.G., Vostrikova N.O. & Afanasiev V.E. (2013) Schoenoplectus bucharicus (Cyperaceae), a new adventive species to the flora of Europa (in Russian). Botanicheskiĭ Zhurnal 98(2): 231-232.

Rozhevits R.Y. (1964) Scirpus. In: Shishkin B.K. (ed.), Flora of the U.S.S.R., vol. III. Academic Scienc. U.S.S.R.: 34-43. [available online at: http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/95110#page/66/mode/1up]

Verloove F. (2003) Graanadventieven nieuw voor de Belgische flora, hoofdzakelijk in 1999 en 2000. Dumortiera 80: 45-53.