Mapania linderi (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fibre

Mapania linderi Hutch. ex Nelmes

Protologue: Kew Bull.: 421 (1952).

Family: Cyperaceae

Origin and geographic distribution

Mapania linderi is distributed from Guinea to Côte d’Ivoire.

Uses

The leaves are used for thatching in Liberia.

Botany

Perennial, robust herb with a woody, vertically growing rhizome 5–20 mm in diameter; stems solitary, up to 30 cm tall, 1–3 mm in diameter, terete, glabrous, green to reddish brown. Leaves inserted in the lower part of the stem; sheath linear to linear-lanceolate, 4.5–9 cm × 1–2.5 mm, apex narrowed into pseudo-petiole 4–30 cm × 1–2.5 cm, dark green to reddish; blade broadly linear, 30–130 cm × 1.5–5 cm, base transformed into a pseudo-petiole, asymmetrical and acute to acuminate at the apex, margin finely serrate, papery or leathery, dark green, 3-veined, veins brown to black. Inflorescence a terminal, dense, nearly globose head 1.5–2.5 cm in diameter with numerous composite spikes; involucral bracts 4–8, ovate, subequal, 9–18 mm × (7–)8–11 mm, straw-coloured; peduncles slender; spikes not clearly distinguishable from each other, linear to elliptical, up to 10 mm × 5 mm; spicoid bracts glumaceous, lanceolate, 2–8 mm × 1–2 mm. Spicoid (pseudo-spikelet) composed of 4 floral bracts, 2 staminate flowers and a terminal female flower; lower 2 bracts linear-lanceolate, 5–8 mm long, rounded at the apex; upper 2 bracts narrowly linear, 5–8 mm long, obtuse; staminate flowers with 1 stamen; female flower with 2 stigmas. Fruit obovoid, 1–1.5 mm × c. 1 mm, black, exocarp hard and weakly tuberculate, 1-seeded. Seed small.

Mapania linderi flowers in March–October. Pollination is probably by insects.

Mapania comprises c. 85 species, and is distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics and extending into warm temperate regions.

Ecology

Mapania linderi occurs at 80–500 m altitude in humid and shaded locations in riverine forest, montane forest and secondary forest, often in valley bottoms. It is locally common.

Management

Mapania linderi is only collected from the wild.

Genetic resources

Although Mapania linderi has a relatively limited distribution, it is locally common and there are no indications that the species is threatened with genetic erosion.

Prospects

Mapania linderi is only locally used for thatching, and its importance is unlikely to increase.

Major references

• Burkill, H.M., 1985. The useful plants of West Tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. Volume 1, Families A–D. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 960 pp.

• Lorougnon, G., 1972. Les Cypéracées forestières de Côte d’Ivoire. Mémoires ORSTOM No 58. Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer, Paris, France. 102 pp.

• Nelmes, E., 1951. Notes on Cyperaceae, XXVII. Mapania in Africa, I: new Liberian species. Kew Bulletin 6(3): 419–422.

• Poorter, L., Bongers, F., Kouamé, F.Y.N. & Hawthorne, W.D., 2004. Biodiversity of West African forests: an ecological atlas of woody plant species. CABI, Wallingford, United Kingdom. 521 pp.

• Simpson, D.A., 1992. A revision of the genus Mapania (Cyperaceae). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. 189 pp.

Other references

• Dai, L.-K., Liang, S.-Y., Zhang, S., Tang, Y., Koyama, T., Tucker, G.C., Simpson, D.A., Noltie, H.J., Strong, M.T., Bruhl, J.J., Wilson, K.L. & Muasya, A.M. (Editors), 2010. Cyperaceae. [Internet] Flora of China, Science Press, Beijing, China and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis MO, United States. 23: 164–461. http://www.efloras.org/ florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=10246. June 2011.

• Hooper, S.S. & Napper, D.M., 1972. Cyperaceae. In: Hepper, F.N. (Editor). Flora of West Tropical Africa. Volume 3. 2nd Edition. Crown Agents for Oversea Governments and Administrations, London, United Kingdom. pp. 278–348.

• Nelmes, E. & Baldwin, J.T. Jr., 1952. Cyperaceae in Liberia. American Journal of Botany 39(6): 368–393.

• Simpson, D.A. & Inglis, C.A., 2001. Cyperaceae of economic, ethnobotanical and horticultural importance: a checklist. Kew Bulletin 56(2): 257–360.

Author(s)

• M. Brink, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Brink, M., 2011. Mapania linderi Hutch. ex Nelmes. [Internet] Record from PROTA4U. Brink, M. & Achigan-Dako, E.G. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. <http://www.prota4u.org/search.asp>.

Accessed 18 December 2024.

• See the Prota4U database.