Plants of
South Australia
Ficinia nodosa
Cyperaceae
Knobby club-rush,
Knobby Club-sedge
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Regional Species Conservation Assessments per IBRA subregion.
Least concern
Near threatened
Rare
Vulnerable
Endangered
Critically endangered
Extinct
Data deficient
Adelaide
Arkaroola
Ceduna
Coober Pedy
Hawker
Innamincka
Marla
Marree
Mount Gambier
Oodnadatta
Renmark
Wudinna
Keith
Yunta
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Botanical art

Kath Alcock paintings: 7

Prior names

Isolepis nodosa

Scirpus nodosus

Common names

Knobby club-rush

Knobby Club-sedge

Etymology

Ficinia named after Heinrich David Auguste Ficinia (1782-1857), a German botanist, physician, naturalist and professor of physics and chemistry. Nodosa from the Latin 'nodus' meaning knot or node, referring to the flower-head.

Distribution and status

Found southern South Australia, especially along the coast. Also found in Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. Native. Common in South Australia. Common in the other States.
Herbarium regions: Nullarbor, Eyre Peninsula, Northern Lofty, Murray, Yorke Peninsula, Southern Lofty, Kangaroo Island, South Eastern, Green Adelaide
NRM regions: Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, Eyre Peninsula, Kangaroo Island, Northern and Yorke, South Australian Murray-Darling Basin, South East
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)

Plant description

An erect rhizomatous sedge to 1 m high. Stems are cylindrical with leaves reduced to sheaths. Flowers occur in globular heads at the tip of the stems. Flowers all year round. Fruits are cylindrical, brown ball containing numerous seeds,at the tip of stems Seeds are tiny orange spherical seeds about the size of a sand grain, less than 1mm long. Seed embryo type is capitate.

Seed collection and propagation

Collect seeds between January and December. Collect seed-heads that are brown and come off easily with your fingers. Place the seed-heads in a tray to dry for a week. Then rub the heads by hand and use a fine sieve to separated the unwanted material. Be careful as the seeds are very small. Seeds are orange brown and hard. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability was high, at 100%. Seeds are non-dormant, viable seed should germinate readily.

Seeds stored:
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LocationNo. of seeds
(weight grams)		Number
of plants		Date
collected		Collection number
Collection location		Date
stored		% ViabilityStorage
temperature
BGA 
MSB		34,380 (6.3 g)
34,380 (6.3 g)		5725-May-2004MKJ33
South Eastern		1-Sep-2004N/C+5°C, -18°C
Location: BGA — the seeds are stored at the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, MSB — the seeds are stored at the Millennium Seed Bank, Kew, England.
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.
Germination table:
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We acknowledge the contributions of the South Australian Seed Conservation Centre, the Botanic Gardens of South Australia, and the Department for Environment and Water.