GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora

Descriptions

W.D. Clayton, M. Vorontsova, K.T. Harman & H. Williamson

© Copyright The Board of Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Aegilops speltoides

HABIT Annual; caespitose. Culms erect, or geniculately ascending; 20–70 cm long. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate. Leaf-sheath auricles falcate. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blades 5–15 cm long; 2–3 mm wide; glaucous. Leaf-blade surface scabrous; rough on both sides; pilose; sparsely hairy.

INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence composed of racemes; deciduous as a whole.

Racemes 1; single; linear; straight, or arcuate; bilateral; 8–11 cm long; bearing 6–13 fertile spikelets on each. Rhachis tough; semiterete. Spikelet packing broadside to rhachis. Rhachis internodes linear; 1 length of fertile spikelet.

Spikelets appressed; solitary. Fertile spikelets sessile.

STERILE SPIKELETS Basal sterile spikelets absent, or rudimentary; 0–1 in number.

FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 4–8 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets oblong; laterally compressed; 8–14 mm long; falling entire; deciduous with accessory branch structures.

GLUMES Glumes similar; shorter than spikelet. Lower glume oblong; asymmetrical; 5–9 mm long; 1 length of upper glume; coriaceous; without keels; 7–9 -veined. Lower glume lateral veins unequally thickened; ribbed. Lower glume apex with a unilateral tooth. Upper glume oblong; asymmetrical; 5–9 mm long; 0.9 length of adjacent fertile lemma; coriaceous; without keels; 7–9 -veined. Upper glume lateral veins unequally thickened; ribbed; parallel at apex. Upper glume apex with a unilateral tooth; truncate.

FLORETS Fertile lemma oblong; 8–11 mm long; coriaceous; without keel; 5 -veined. Lemma apex truncate; awned only on distal spikelets; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn 20–120 mm long overall. Palea 2 -veined. Palea keels scaberulous. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

FLOWER Lodicules 2; ciliate. Ovary with a fleshy appendage below style insertion; pubescent on apex.

FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; hairy at apex. Disseminule comprising a inflorescence.

DISTRIBUTION Europe: southeastern. Asia-temperate: western Asia.

NOTES Triticeae. Fl Iran.

Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.