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.

Schizostachyum pseudolima

HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; pendulous at the tip; 1000 cm long; 40 mm diam.; woody. Culm-internodes terete; hollow; scaberulous. Lateral branches dendroid. Culm-sheaths tardily deciduous; green (olive); antrorsely scabrous; glabrous on margins; truncate at apex; without auricles; setose on shoulders; shoulders with 12 mm long hairs. Culm-sheath ligule ciliolate. Culm-sheath blade lanceolate; reflexed. Leaf-sheaths striately veined; glabrous on surface, or hispid. Leaf-sheath oral hairs lacking, or ciliate; deciduous. Leaf-sheath auricles absent. Ligule a ciliolate membrane; 0.5 mm long. Collar with external ligule. Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath. Leaf-blades oblong; 9–33 cm long; 15–48 mm wide. Leaf-blade venation without cross veins. Leaf-blade surface glabrous. Leaf-blade margins scabrous. Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

INFLORESCENCE Synflorescence bractiferous; clustered at the nodes; in untidy tufts; with glumaceous subtending bracts; with axillary buds at base of spikelet; prophyllate below lateral spikelets; leafless between clusters; 10–15 cm long overall.

Fertile spikelets sessile.

FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets lanceolate; subterete; 20–25 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret.

GLUMES Glumes one the lower absent or obscure, or two, or several; 1–5 empty glumes; persistent; shorter than spikelet. Lower glume ovate; 6–12 mm long. Upper glume ovate; 6–12 mm long.

FLORETS Fertile lemma ovate; 18–22 mm long; chartaceous; without keel. Lemma margins convolute; covering most of palea. Lemma apex acute; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn 15 mm long overall. Palea tightly convolute around flower; 1 length of lemma; chartaceous; without keels. Palea apex dentate; 2 -fid. Rhachilla extension 1–3 mm long. Apical sterile florets 1 in number; barren; rudimentary.

FLOWER Anthers 6; 8–10 mm long. Stigmas 3. Ovary with a steeple-like appendage; glabrous.

FRUIT Caryopsis with free brittle pericarp.

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

NOTES Bambuseae. McClure 2002.

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