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.

Poa burmanica

HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Butt sheaths herbaceous; yellow; persistent and investing base of culm; with fibrous dead sheaths. Culms decumbent; slender; 30 cm long. Culm-internodes terete; smooth. Lateral branches lacking. Leaves mostly basal. Leaf-sheaths tight; smooth; glabrous on surface. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 1 mm long; scarious; white; scaberulous on abaxial surface; truncate. Leaf-blades 2–6 cm long; 1.5 mm wide. Leaf-blade surface scabrous; rough adaxially. Leaf-blade margins scabrous.

INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence a panicle. Peduncle smooth.

Panicle open; oblong, or pyramidal; 5–10 cm long; 2–5 cm wide. Primary panicle branches 2 -nate. Panicle branches capillary; flexuous; scabrous.

Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled. Pedicels scabrous.

FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 2–3 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets elliptic; laterally compressed; 4–5 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret. Rhachilla internodes smooth. Floret callus woolly.

GLUMES Glumes persistent; similar; shorter than spikelet. Lower glume linear; 2.75–3 mm long; 0.8 length of upper glume; membranous; 1-keeled; 1 -veined. Lower glume primary vein scabrous. Lower glume lateral veins absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume oblong; 3–3.75 mm long; 0.75–0.8 length of adjacent fertile lemma; membranous; 1-keeled; 3 -veined. Upper glume primary vein scabrous. Upper glume apex acuminate.

FLORETS Fertile lemma oblong; elliptic in profile; 4–4.5 mm long; membranous; keeled; 5 -veined. Lemma midvein scaberulous; ciliate; hairy below. Lemma lateral veins prominent. Lemma surface pubescent; hairy on back. Lemma margins ciliate. Lemma apex obtuse. Palea 0.9 length of lemma. Palea keels ciliate; adorned above. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

FLOWER Lodicules 2; membranous. Anthers 3; 0.9 mm long.

FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp. Hilum punctiform.

DISTRIBUTION Asia-temperate: China. Asia-tropical: India and Indo-China.

NOTES Poeae. Bor.

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