Hellmuthia

{{Short description|Genus of plants}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Helmet Sedge imported from iNaturalist photo 22614316 on 6 December 2023.jpg

| image_caption =

| genus = Hellmuthia

| parent_authority = Steud.

| species = membranacea

| authority = (Thunb.) R.W.Haines & Lye

| synonyms = {{species list

|Ficinia canaliculata |H.Pfeiff.

|Ficinia membranacea |(Thunb.) Kunth

|Hellmuthia restioides |Steud.

|Scirpus membranaceus |Thunb. }}

}}

Hellmuthia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Cyperaceae.{{cite web |title=Hellmuthia Steud. {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:13799-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=26 May 2021 |language=en}} The only species is Hellmuthia membranacea.{{cite web |title=Hellmuthia membranacea (Thunb.) R.W.Haines & Lye {{!}} Plants of the World Online {{!}} Kew Science |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:308759-1 |website=Plants of the World Online |access-date=24 September 2021 |language=en}}

It is native to the Cape Provinces within the South African Republic.

The genus name of Hellmuthia is in honour of Hellmuth Steudel (1816–1886), German doctor in Esslingen and son of Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel (a German physician and an authority on grasses).{{cite book | last=Quattrocchi | first=Umberto | title=CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names, Volume II, D–L | publisher=CRC Press | location=Boca Raton, Florida | year=2000 | isbn=978-0-8493-2676-9}} The Latin specific epithet of membranaceus means membranous.{{cite book | last=Lewis | first=Charlton | title=An Elementary Latin Dictionary | publisher=Oxford University Press | location=Oxford | year=1891 | isbn=9780199102051 }}

Hellmuthia membranacea was first described and published in Bot. Not. Vol.129 on page 66 in 1976.