|
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.
Festuca xenophontis
HABIT Perennial; caespitose; clumped densely. Butt sheaths persistent and investing base of culm; with soft dead sheaths. Basal innovations intravaginal. Culms 27–54 cm long. Culm-internodes smooth; distally glabrous. Leaf-sheaths open for most of their length; with 0.25–0.5 of their length closed; glabrous on surface, or puberulous. Leaf-sheath auricles erect. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 0.2 mm long. Leaf-blades filiform; conduplicate; elliptic in section; 9–15 cm long; 0.7–0.9 mm wide; pruinose. Leaf-blade venation comprising 5 vascular bundles; with 3–5 inner ridges; with 3 subepidermal sclerenchyma strands; with subepidermal sclerenchyma free from veins; without layer of subepidermal sclerenchyma masking vein striation, or with sclerenchyma strands widened to form a discontinuous subepidermal layer. Leaf-blade surface smooth; glabrous. Leaf-blade apex obtuse.
INFLORESCENCE Inflorescence a panicle. Peduncle antrorsely scabrous above.
Panicle open; lanceolate; dense; 3.5–8.5 cm long. Panicle branches scabrous.
Spikelets solitary. Fertile spikelets pedicelled. Pedicels tip rectangular.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 4–5 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets elliptic, or oblong; laterally compressed; 7–9.5 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret.
GLUMES Glumes persistent; shorter than spikelet. Lower glume lanceolate; chartaceous; without keels; 1 -veined. Lower glume lateral veins absent. Lower glume apex acute. Upper glume lanceolate, or ovate; 3.5–5.2 mm long; chartaceous; with scarious margins; without keels; 3 -veined. Upper glume apex acute.
FLORETS Fertile lemma lanceolate; 4.6–6.6 mm long; 2.1–2.5 mm wide; chartaceous; glaucous and light brown; suffused with last colour; pruinose; without keel; 5 -veined. Lemma surface puberulous; hairy above. Lemma apex acuminate; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn 1.5–4 mm long overall. Palea 1 length of lemma; 2 -veined. Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.
FLOWER Anthers 3. Ovary glabrous.
FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; glabrous. Hilum linear.
DISTRIBUTION Asia-temperate: western Asia.
NOTES Poeae. Fl Turk 1997.
Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.
