The grass genera of the world
The grass genera of the world | |
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial; loosely caespitose. Culms 20–100 cm high; herbaceous; unbranched above. Leaves not basally aggregated; non-auriculate. Leaf blades lanceolate to elliptic; broad; up to 25 mm wide; pseudopetiolate. Ligule an unfringed membrane; not truncate (herbaceous, many nerved, blunt); 20–30 mm long.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence paniculate; open to contracted. Inflorescence with axes ending in spikelets. Inflorescence espatheate; not comprising ‘partial inflorescences’ and foliar organs. Spikelets not secund; shortly pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets 3.6–4.3 mm long; compressed dorsiventrally (according to the available description); falling with the glumes. Rachilla terminated by a female-fertile floret. Hairy callus absent. Callus short; blunt.
Glumes two; very unequal; (the upper) about equalling the spikelets; (the upper) long relative to the adjacent lemmas; hairless; pointed; awnless; similar (thinly membranous). Lower glume 1 nerved. Upper glume 3 nerved. Spikelets with female-fertile florets only; without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 1. Lemmas oblong-ovate; similar in texture to the glumes to decidedly firmer than the glumes (membranous); not becoming indurated; entire; pointed (sub-acute); awnless; hairless; 3 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; entire; awnless, without apical setae; 2-nerved (?); 2-keeled (with a dorsal sulcus). Palea keels wingless. Lodicules present; 2 (?); membranous. Stamens 3.
Abaxial leaf blade epidermis. Microhairs probably absent (the leaf anatomy being described merely as ‘pooid’).
Transverse section of leaf blade, physiology. Said to have pooid leaf anatomy, so presumably C3.
Taxonomy. Pooideae (according to Cope), or Bambusoideae (? - at least equally likely, from the available description); Poodae (if really pooid), or Oryzodae (if bambusoid); if pooid Aveneae (?); if bambusoid Phaenospermateae (? - the only available description comes quite close to that of Phaenosperma).
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; China. Mesophytic; shade species. In montane forest.
Holarctic. Boreal. Eastern Asian.
References, etc. Morphological/taxonomic: T.A. Cope 1987. Kew Bull. 42, 707–709.
Special comments. Data limited to the original, inadequate description and illustration. Fruit data wanting. Anatomical data wanting.
This description is offered for casual browsing only. We strongly advise against extracting comparative information from it. This is much more easily achieved using the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, geographical distribution, classification, and species sampled for anatomy.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The grass genera of the world: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval; including synonyms, morphology, anatomy, physiology, phytochemistry, cytology, classification, pathogens, world and local distribution, and references. Version: 18th December 2012. http://delta-intkey.com’.