|
Note - this takes you off
of our website |
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 tenuiberbis
HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Basal innovations flabellate. Culms 100–250 cm long. Ligule a ciliolate membrane. Leaf-blades revolute; 30–60 cm long; 2–3 mm wide; stiff. Leaf-blade margins spinulose.
INFLORESCENCE Synflorescence compound; paniculate; lax. Inflorescence composed of racemes; terminal and axillary; subtended by a spatheole. Spatheole linear; 6–8 cm long.
Racemes 5–40; digitate; straight, or sinuous; 3–12 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes; glabrous on margins, or ciliate on margins. Rhachis hairs 0–2 mm long. Rhachis internodes filiform. Rhachis internode tip transverse; cupuliform; with simple rim.
Spikelets ascending; in pairs. Fertile spikelets sessile; 1 in the cluster. Companion sterile spikelets pedicelled; 1 in the cluster. Pedicels filiform; straight, or curved; glabrous, or ciliate; with 0–2 mm long hairs.
STERILE SPIKELETS Companion sterile spikelets well-developed; male; lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 3–5.5 mm long; as long as fertile. Companion sterile spikelet glumes chartaceous; acute; muticous. Companion sterile spikelet lemmas 2; enclosed by glumes.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 1 basal sterile florets; 1 fertile florets; without rhachilla extension. Spikelets linear, or lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 4–5.5 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, or lanceolate; 1 length of spikelet; membranous; 2-keeled; keeled laterally. Lower glume intercarinal veins absent. Lower glume surface concave. Upper glume linear; membranous; 1-keeled. Upper glume muticous.
FLORETS Basal sterile florets barren; without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret oblong; 4 mm long; hyaline; 2 -veined; ciliolate on margins. Fertile lemma oblong; hyaline; without keel. Lemma apex lobed; 2 -fid; incised 0.25–0.5 of lemma length; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn from a sinus; geniculate; 5–12 mm long overall; with twisted column. Column of lemma awn glabrous.
DISTRIBUTION Africa: west tropical, west-central tropical, northeast tropical, and east tropical.
NOTES Andropogoneae. FTEA.
Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.
