Eurychorda is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Restionaceae formally described in 1998.[1] [2] The only known species, Eurychorda complanata, commonly known as the flat cord-rush, is endemic to Australia.[3] It is characterised by flattened stems and reduced, sheathing leaves.
A perennial or rhizomatous geophyte herb, Eurychorda complanata exhibits a graminoid growth form with tufted or shortly creeping rhizomes, and erect culms ranging from in height and in diameter.[4] [5] [6] Leaves are reduced pale, glabrous sheaths along the stem with acute apices, approximately long.[4] It has terminal inflorescences of spikelets, typically 5-20, arranged in a narrow panicle with shorter bracts.[4] [6] E. complanata is dioecious.[4] Male spikelets are ovate to globose, about long, with many flowers, while female spikelets are elliptic, approximately long, usually pedicellate, and have fewer flowers.[4] Both male and female flowers possess four tepals.[4] It flowers in summer (November, December, January, February) and has dry dehiscent capsule fruit.[4]
Eurychorda complanata thrives in waterlogged peaty vegetation from sea level to sub-alpine areas and is a common species in button grass sedgeland communities.[6] It is common in Tasmania but its distribution extends across south-eastern Australia (Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia).[4]
Eurychorda complanata belongs to the family Restionaceae within the order Poales.[7] It was first identified in 1810 by Robert Brown in Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae.[8] [9] The species was then formally described and named in 1998 by Barbara Gillian Briggs & Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson.[10] The specific epiphet 'complanata' signifies its flattened morphology.
This species is rare in South Australia and listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss and degradation.[11] It is not listed as a threatened species elsewhere in its distribution.