Abolboda americana

Abolboda americana is a perennial herb in the family Xyridaceae, order Poales. The specific epithet americana broadly indicates a distribution in the Americas, and the species is a member of the genus Abolboda, which is endemic to the Neotropical region, particularly concentrated in the Guiana Highlands and surrounding lowlands of northern South America. As a member of Xyridaceae, Abolboda americana is a grass- or rush-like herb adapted to the open, waterlogged, nutrient-poor habitats typical of the tepui ecosystem. These habitats include the summit plateaus of ancient sandstone table mountains, white-sand savannas, and poorly drained llanos. The plant produces rosettes or tufts of narrow leaves from which arise slender scapes bearing a terminal head or spike of flowers. The flowers are characteristically three-petalled and blue or violet in colour, opening sequentially over the life of the inflorescence and lasting only a few hours each day. Pollination is carried out primarily by bees. The fruit is a small capsule containing numerous minute seeds, dispersed by wind or water through the wetlands the species inhabits. Abolboda americana, like its congeners, is a specialist of oligotrophic, waterlogged conditions and is unlikely to persist where drainage or soil chemistry is altered. The tepui region of South America, where Abolboda reaches its greatest diversity, is one of the most ancient and botanically distinctive landscapes on earth, and its endemic flora is of great scientific and conservation importance.