All Topics  
Cyperus papyrus

 
Cyperus Papyrus

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Cyperus papyrus
 
 
  Topics Cyperus papyrus Topic Home

Cyperus papyrus (papyrus sedge or paper reed) is a monocot belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae

The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocotyledon flowering plants that superficially resemble Poaceae or Juncaceae. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera....
. It is a herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
 perennial
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 native to Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, and forms tall stands of reed-like swamp vegetation in shallow water.

Papyrus sedge (and its close relatives) has a very long history of use by humans, notably by the Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
s – it is the source of papyrus paper, parts of it can be eaten, and the highly buoyant stems can be made into boats.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Cyperus papyrus'
Start a new discussion about 'Cyperus papyrus'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


Kew
Cyperus papyrus (papyrus sedge or paper reed) is a monocot belonging to the sedge family Cyperaceae
Cyperaceae

The family Cyperaceae, or the sedges, is a taxon of monocotyledon flowering plants that superficially resemble Poaceae or Juncaceae. The family is large, with some 4,000 species described in about 70 genera....
. It is a herbaceous
Herbaceous

A herbaceous plant is a plant that has leaf and stem that die down at the end of the growing season to the soil level. A herbaceous plant may be Annual plant, Biennial plant or Perennial plant....
 perennial
Perennial plant

A perennial plant or perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. When used by gardeners or horticulturalists, this term applies specifically to perennial herbaceous plants....
 native to Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, and forms tall stands of reed-like swamp vegetation in shallow water.

Papyrus sedge (and its close relatives) has a very long history of use by humans, notably by the Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
s – it is the source of papyrus paper, parts of it can be eaten, and the highly buoyant stems can be made into boats. It is now often cultivated as an ornamental plant
Ornamental plant

Ornamental plants are typically grown in the flower garden or as house plants. Most commonly they are grown for the display of their flowers. Other common ornamental features include leaves, scent, fruit, Plant stem and bark....
.

Description

This tall, robust, leafless aquatic plant can grow high. It forms a grass-like clump of triangular green stems that rise up from thick, woody rhizome
Rhizome

In botany, a rhizome is a characteristically horizontal plant stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes....
s. Each stem is topped by a dense cluster of thin, bright green, thread-like stems around in length, resembling a feather duster when the plant is young. Greenish-brown flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
 clusters eventually appear at the ends of the rays, giving way to brown, nut-like fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
s.

The younger parts of the rhizome are covered by red-brown, papery, triangular scales, which also cover the base of the culms. Botanically these represent reduced leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
, so strictly it is not quite correct to call this plant fully "leafless".

Papyrus in history


Egyptians
Egyptians

Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
 used the plant for many purposes, most famously for making papyrus
Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland Cyperaceae that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
 paper. Its name in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 and in English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 is widely believed to have come from Egyptian, but this is probably a folk etymology. Cyperus papyrus is now used mainly for decoration, as it is nearly extinct
Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the death of every member of a species or group of taxon. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species ....
 in its native habitat in the Nile Delta, where in ancient times it was widely cultivated. Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
' "History of Plants" (Book iv. 10) states that it grew in Syria
Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is an Arab-majority country in Southwest Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Israel to the southwest, Jordan to the south, Iraq to the east, and Turkey to the north....
; and, according to Pliny's
Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
 Natural History, it was also a native plant of the Niger River
Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about 4180 km . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea....
 and the Euphrates
Euphrates

The Euphrates is the western of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia which flows from Anatolia....
.

Aside from papyrus, several other members of the genus Cyperus
Cyperus

Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of Cyperaceaes, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic ecosystem and growing in still or slow-moving water up to 0.5 m deep....
 may actually have been involved in the multiple uses Egyptians found for the plant. Its flowering heads were linked to make garlands for the gods in gratitude. The pith of young shoots was eaten both cooked and raw. Its woody root made bowls and other utensils and was burned for fuel. From the stems were made reed boats (seen in bas-reliefs of the Fourth Dynasty showing men cutting papyrus to build a boat; similar boats are still made in the southern Sudan
Sudan

Sudan is a country in northeastern Africa. It is the largest in the African continent and the Arab World, and List of countries and outlying territories by total area by area....
), sails, mats, cloth, cordage, and sandals. Theophrastus states that King Antigonus made the rigging of his fleet of papyrus, an old practice illustrated by the ship's cable, wherewith the doors were fastened when Odysseus slew the suitors in his hall (Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
 xxi. 390).

The "rush" or "reed" basket in which the Biblical figure Moses
Moses

Moses is a Hebrew Bible Hebrews religious leader, lawgiver, prophet, to whom the Mosaic authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbeinu in Hebrew , he is the most important prophet in Judaism, and also an important prophet of Christianity, Islam, the Bah?'? Faith, Rastafari movement, Chrislam and many ot...
 was abandoned may have been made from papyrus.

The adventurer Thor Heyerdahl
Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norway ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands....
 built two boats from papyrus, Ra and Ra II
Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norway ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands....
, in an attempt to demonstrate that ancient African or Mediterranean people could have reached America
Americas

The Americas are the region of the Western hemisphere that consists of the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions....
. He succeeded in sailing Ra II from Morocco
Morocco

Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 34 million and an area just under 447,000 km2....
 to Barbados
Barbados

Barbados , situated just east of the Caribbean Sea, is an independent Continental Island-island nation in the western Atlantic Ocean. Located at roughly 13? North of the equator and 59? West of the prime meridian, it is considered a part of the Lesser Antilles....
.

Ecology


Papyrus ranges from subtropical to tropical desert to wet forests, tolerating annual temperatures of to and a pH of 6.0 to 8.5. Papyrus flowers in late summer, and prefers full sun to partly-shady conditions. Like most tropical plants, it is sensitive to frost. In the United States it has become invasive in Florida
Florida

Florida is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast....
 and has escaped from cultivation in Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
, California
California

California is a U.S. state on the West Coast of the United States of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and to the south the Mexico state of Baja California....
 and Hawaii
Hawaii

File:Pahoehoe and Aa flows at Hawaii.jpgThe State of Hawaii is a U.S. state in the United States, located on an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of Australia....
.

Papyrus sedge forms vast stands in swamps, shallow lakes, and along stream banks throughout the wetter parts of Africa, but it has become rare in the Nile Delta
Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the River delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas?from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline?and is a rich agricultural region....
. In deeper waters it is the chief constituent of the floating, tangled masses of vegetation known as sudd. It also occurs in Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
, and some Mediterranean regions such as Sicily
Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
 and the Levant
Levant

The Levant describes, traditionally, the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia formed by the lands bordering the Eastern shores of the Mediterranean, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the M...
.

The "feather-duster" flowering heads make ideal nesting sites for many social species of bird
Bird

Birds are wing, Bipedalismal, endothermic , vertebrate animals that lay egg . There are around 10,000 living species, making them the most numerous tetrapod vertebrates....
s. As in most sedges, pollination
Pollination

Pollination in flowering plants and gymnosperms is the process that transfers pollen, which contain the male gametes to where the female gamete are contained within the carpel; in gymnosperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself....
 is effected by wind, not insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s, and the mature fruits after release are distributed by water.

In recent years papyrus has been the subject of intense ecological studies centered around its prodigious growth rate and ability to recycle nutrients. Much of this research was begun at Makerere University
Makerere University

Makerere University, Uganda's largest university, was first established as a technical school in 1922, and in 1963 it became the University of East Africa, offering courses leading to general degrees of the University of London....
 in Uganda
Uganda

The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania....
 in the early 70’s in the swamps on the edge of Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria

Lake Victoria or Victoria Nyanza is one of the Great Lakes of Africa.Lake Victoria is 68,800 square kilometres in size, making it the continent's largest lake, the largest tropical lake in the world, and the second widest fresh water lake in the world in terms of surface area ....
 and continued in Kenya
Kenya

The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north, Somalia to the northeast, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest, with the Indian Ocean running along the southeast border....
 (University of Nairobi) on Lake Naivasha
Lake Naivasha

Lake Naivasha is a freshwater lake in Kenya, lying north west of Nairobi, outside the town of Naivasha. It is part of the Great Rift Valley....
. John Gaudet’s work in Africa, supported by a National Geographic Society
National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world....
 grant, appeared in various scientific journals over the period 1975-1991. In addition, other pioneer researchers of papyrus at Makerere in the 70’s were: Keith Thompson, T. R. Milburn, and Mike Jones. Thompson’s studies of papyrus swamp development throughout Africa (1976-1985) later formed the basis for management and conservation at national levels.

Extensive research on the productive physiology of papyrus were carried out by Jones from the 80's onward. He started his work in Uganda and later continued his research on Lake Naivasha in Kenya where he was joined by a new generation of African researchers including, Frank Muthuri. Jones's latest research (2002) found that papyrus is a C4
C4 carbon fixation

C4 carbon fixation is one of three biochemical mechanisms, along with C3 carbon fixation and CAM photosynthesis, functioning in land plants to "fix" carbon dioxide for sugar production through photosynthesis....
 sedge which forms highly productive monotypic stands over large areas of wetland in Africa. Jones and others measured eddy covariance from a stand of Cyperus papyrus, which formed a fringing swamp on the north-west shore of Lake Naivasha, Kenya. They determined that fluxes of CO2 and H2O vapor between the papyrus swamp and the atmosphere were large but variable, depending on the hydrology of the wetland system and the condition of the vegetation. These measurements, combined with simulation modeling of annual fluxes of CO2, showed that papyrus swamps have the potential to sequester large amounts of the carbon (1.6 kg C m-2 y-1) when detritus accumulates under water in anaerobic conditions, but they are a net source of carbon release to the atmosphere (1.0 kg C m-2 y-1) when water levels fall to expose detritus and rhizomes to aerobic conditions. Evapotranspiration from papyrus swamps (E) was frequently lower than evaporation from open water surfaces (E o) and plant factors have a strong influence on the flux of water to the atmosphere.

Research on the papyrus swamp habitat has in recent years attracted the attention of many more African biologists, such as A. O. Owino, K. M. Mavuti, S. M. Muchiri and S. Njuguna. Increasingly the value of papyrus to other species is being recognized. Papyrus swamps provide hypoxic and structural refugia for cichlids from the large predatory Nile Perch
Nile perch

The Nile perch is a species of freshwaterfish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is widespread throughout muchof the Afrotropic ecozone, being native to the Congo River, Nile River, Senegal River, Niger River, and Lake Chad, Volta, Lake Turkana and other river basins....
 and are an important habitat for several endangered bird species (Chapman et al. 1996; 2003; Maclean et al. 2003a; 2006).

The late 1990s also saw the rise in research on the papyrus swamps of Lake Naivasha in Kenya by teams from the English Universities of Leicester and East Anglia, notably led by David Harper. Harper's extensive recent studies on the swamps and lakes have led to a world-wide awareness of the problems facing papyrus swamps in Africa today.

Gardening

The papyrus plant grows easily indoors, provided it is abundantly watered.

See also

  • Cyperus
    Cyperus

    Cyperus is a large genus of about 600 species of Cyperaceaes, distributed throughout all continents in both tropical and temperate regions. They are annual or perennial plants, mostly aquatic ecosystem and growing in still or slow-moving water up to 0.5 m deep....
  • Thor Heyerdahl
    Thor Heyerdahl

    Thor Heyerdahl was a Norway ethnographer and adventurer with a scientific background in zoology and geography. Heyerdahl became famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition, in which he sailed 4,300 miles by raft from South America to the Tuamotu Islands....
  • Ark of bulrushes
    Ark of bulrushes

    The ark of bulrushes in which the infant Moses was laid is called in the Hebrew language teiva, a word similar to the Egyptian language teb, meaning "a chest"....


Further reading

  • Boar, R. R., D. M. Harper and C. S. Adams. 1999. Biomass Allocation in Cyperus papyrus in a Tropical Wetland, Lake Naivasha, Kenya. 1999. Biotropica 3: 411.
  • Chapman, L.J., C.A. Chapman, R. Ogutu-Ohwayo, M. Chandler, L. Kaufman and A.E. Keiter. 1996. Refugia for endangered fishes from an introduced predator in Lake Nabugabo, Uganda. Conservation Biology 10: 554-561.
  • Chapman, L.J., C.A. Chapman, P.J. Schofield, J.P. Olowo, L. Kaufman, O. Seehausen and R. Ogutu-Ohwayo. 2003. Fish faunal resurgence in Lake Nabugabo, East Africa. Conservation Biology 17: 500-511.
  • Gaudet, John. 1975. Mineral concentrations in papyrus in various African swamps. Journal of Ecology 63: 483-491.
  • Gaudet, John. 1976. Nutrient relationships in the detritus of a tropical swamp.Archiv fur Hydrobiologie 78: 213-239.
  • Gaudet, John. 1977. Natural drawdown on Lake Naivasha, Kenya and the formation of papyrus swamps. Aquatic Botany 3: 1-47.
  • Gaudet, John. 1977. Uptake and loss of mineral nutrients by papyrus in tropical swamps. Ecology 58: 415-422.
  • Gaudet, John. 1978. Effect of a tropical swamp on water quality. Verh. Internat. Ver. Limnol. 20: 2202-2206.
  • Gaudet, John. 1978. Seasonal changes in nutrients in a tropical swamp. Journal of Ecology 67: 953-981.
  • Gaudet, John. 1980. Papyrus and the ecology of Lake Naivasha. National Geographic Society Research Reports. 12: 267-272.
  • Gaudet, J. and J. Melack. 1981. Major ion chemistry in a tropical African lake basin. Freshwater Biology 11: 309-333.
  • Gaudet, J. and C. Howard-Williams. 1985. “The structure and functioning of African swamps.” In (ed. Denny) The Ecology and Management of African Wetland Vegetation. Dr.w.Junk, Pub., Dordrecht (pp.154-175).
  • Gaudet, John. 1991. Structure and function of African floodplains. Journal of the East African Natural Historical Society. 82(199): 1-32.
  • Harper, D.M., K.M. Mavuti and S. M. Muchiri. 1990: Ecology and management of Lake Naivasha, Kenya, in relation to climatic change, alien species introductions and agricultural development. Environmental Conservation 17: 328–336.
  • Harper, D. 1992. The ecological relationships of aquatic plants at Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Journal Hydrobiologia. 232: 65-71.
  • Howard-Williams, C. and K. Thompson. 1985. The conservation and management of African wetlands. In (ed. Denny) The Ecology and Management of African Wetland Vegetation. Dr.w.Junk, Pub., Dordrecht (pp.203-230).
  • Jones, M.B. and T. R. Milburn. 1978. Photosynthesis in Papyrus (Cyperus papyrus L.), Photosynthetica. 12: 197 - 199.
  • Jones, M. B. and F. M. Muthuri. 1997. Standing biomass and carbon distribution in a papyrus (Cyperus Papyrus L) swamp on Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Journal of Tropical Ecology. 13: 347 – 356.
  • Jones M.B. and S. W. Humphries. 2002. Impacts of the C4 sedge Cyperus papyrus L. on carbon and water fluxes in an African wetland. Hydrobiologia, Volume 488, pp. 107-113.
  • Maclean, I.M.D. 2004. An ecological and socio-economic analysis of biodiversity conservation in East African wetlands. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
  • Maclean, I.M.D., M. Hassall, M. R. Boar and I. Lake. 2006. Effects of disturbance and habitat loss on papyrus-dwelling passerines. Biological Conservation., 131: 349-358.
  • Maclean, I.M.D., M. Hassall, R. Boar, R. and O. Nasirwa. 2003a. Effects of habitat degradation on avian guilds in East African papyrus Cyperus papyrus L. swamps. Bird Conservation International, 13: 283-297.
  • Maclean, I.M.D., R. Tinch, M. Hassall and R.R. Boar, R.R. 2003b. Social and economic use of wetland resources: a case study from Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda. Environmental Change and Management Working Paper No. 2003-09, Centre for Social and Economic Research into the Global Environment, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
  • Maclean, I.M.D., R. Tinch, M. Hassall and R.R. Boar. 2003c. Towards optimal use of tropical wetlands: an economic evaluation of goods derived from papyrus swamps in southwest Uganda. Environmental Change and Management Working Paper No. 2003-10, Centre for Social and Economic Research into the Global Environment, University of East Anglia, Norwich.
  • Messenger Dally. 1908 How papyrus defeated South Sydney and assisted in making Eastern Suburbs great
  • Muthuri, F. M., M. B. Jones, and S.K. Imbamba. 1989. Primary productivity of papyrus (Cyperus papyrus) in a tropical swamp - Lake Naivasha, Kenya, Biomass, 18: 1 - 14.
  • Muthuri, F. M. and M. B. Jones. 1997 . Nutrient distribution in a papyrus swamp: Lake Naivasha, Kenya. Aquatic Botany, 56: 35 – 50.
  • Owino, A. O. and P. G. Ryan. 2006. Habitat associations of papyrus specialist birds at three papyrus swamps in western Kenya. African Journal of Ecology 44: 438-443.
  • Thompson , K. 1976. Swamp development in the head waters of the White Nile. In (ed.J. Rzoska) ‘‘The Nile. Biology of an Ancient River.’’Monographiae Biologicae, 29. Dr.W. Junk b.v., The Hague.
  • Thompson, K., P.R. Shewry & H.W. Woolhouse. 1979. Papyrus swamp development in the Upemba Basin, Zaire: Studies of population structure in Cyperus papyrus stands. Botanical Journal of the Linn. Soc. 78: 299-316.


External links