Restio triticeus

Restio triticeus, commonly known in Afrikaans as besemriet (broom reed) or besemgoed (broom stuff), is a tufted perennial that sprouts after fire. The branched scapes reach around 80 cm in height, often with sterile branches low down.

The culms have flat-topped, white tubercles or warts and the sheaths have large, membranous shoulders. The sepals of the regular florets are unkeeled and without wings, the male spikelets slightly curved.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape from Malmesbury to the southern Cape where it is common and to the Eastern Cape as far as Makhanda. The photo was taken in the Little Karoo on the Minwater farm near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is dry fynbos and renosterveld slopes in conglomerate, loamy or sandy soils and sometimes at seeps. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Dorrat-Haaksma and Linder, 2012; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).