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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.
Andropogon canaliculatus
HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Culms erect; 25–200 cm long. Leaf-sheath oral hairs ciliate. Leaf-sheath auricles absent, or erect; 0–2 mm long. Ligule an eciliate membrane. Leaf-blades 10–40 cm long; 1–5 mm wide.
INFLORESCENCE Synflorescence simple, or compound; linear. Inflorescence composed of racemes; terminal, or terminal and axillary; subtended by an unspecialized leaf-sheath, or a spatheole. Spatheole linear; 5–10 cm long.
Racemes 2; paired; bilateral (as to sterile spikelets); 3–9 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes; ciliate on margins. Rhachis internodes cuneate, or inflated. Rhachis internode tip transverse; crateriform; with simple rim.
Spikelets appressed; in pairs. Fertile spikelets sessile; 1 in the cluster. Companion sterile spikelets pedicelled; 1 in the cluster. Pedicels cuneate, or inflated; ciliate.
STERILE SPIKELETS Companion sterile spikelets well-developed; male; lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 3.5–6 mm long; as long as fertile. Companion sterile spikelet glumes chartaceous; scaberulous; glabrous; acute; muticous, or mucronate. Companion sterile spikelet lemmas enclosed by glumes.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 basal sterile florets; 1 fertile florets; without rhachilla extension. Spikelets linear; laterally compressed; 4–6 mm long; falling entire; deciduous with accessory branch structures. Spikelet callus pilose; base obtuse; inserted.
GLUMES Glumes dissimilar; exceeding apex of florets; firmer than fertile lemma. Lower glume linear; 1 length of spikelet; coriaceous; 2-keeled; keeled dorsally. Lower glume surface deeply depressed. Upper glume linear; chartaceous; 1-keeled. Upper glume muticous.
FLORETS Basal sterile florets barren; without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret oblong; hyaline; 2 -veined. Fertile lemma oblong; hyaline; without keel. Lemma apex lobed; 2 -fid; incised 0.5 of lemma length; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn from a sinus; geniculate; 7–15 mm long overall; with twisted column. Column of lemma awn glabrous.
DISTRIBUTION Africa: west tropical, west-central tropical, northeast tropical, east tropical, and southern tropical.
NOTES Andropogoneae. FTEA.
ADDITIONAL CHARACTERS Internodes and pedicels twice as wide as gap between them.
Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.
