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GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora
Descriptions
W.D. Clayton, K.T. Harman & H. Williamson
© Copyright The Board of Trustees, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Butt sheaths herbaceous. Culms erect; 50–100 cm long; 3–4 -noded. Culm-nodes glabrous. Lateral branches lacking. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface. Ligule a fringe of hairs. Leaf-blades flat, or convolute; 20–50 cm long; 1–3 mm wide.
INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence a panicle.
Panicle contracted; linear; 10–25 cm long; contracted about primary branches. Primary panicle branches appressed; distant; 0.5–1 cm long; bearing spikelets almost to the base. Panicle branches glabrous in axils.
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 fertile florets; without rhachilla extension. Spikelets lanceolate; subterete; 1.5–2 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret.
GLUMES Glumes deciduous; similar; shorter than spikelet; thinner than fertile lemma. Lower glume oblong; 0.5–0.7 mm long; 0.5 times length of upper glume; hyaline; without keels; 0 -veined. Lower glume lateral veins absent. Lower glume apex obtuse. Upper glume oblong; 1–1.3 mm long; 0.5–0.66 times length of adjacent fertile lemma; hyaline; without keels; 0 -veined. Upper glume primary vein absent. Upper glume lateral veins absent. Upper glume apex obtuse.
FLORETS Fertile lemma oblong; 1.3–2 mm long; membranous; without keel; 1 -veined. Lemma apex acute. Palea 1.5 mm long; 0.75 times length of lemma; 2 -veined. Palea keels approximate.
FLOWER Anthers 2; 0.5 mm long.
FRUIT Caryopsis with free soft pericarp.
DISTRIBUTION Asia-tropical: north Indian ocean. Australasia: Australia and New Zealand. Pacific: southwestern and south-central.
NOTES Eragrostideae. Tothill 1993.
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Version: 5th June 2007.