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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.
Gigantochloa latifolia
HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Rhizomes short; pachymorph. Culms erect; 600–900 cm long; 20–40 mm diam.; woody. Culm-internodes terete; with small lumen; 20–37 cm long; distally pilose (dark brown). Lateral branches dendroid. Buds or branches absent from lower quarter of culm. Culm-sheaths 9–15 cm long; 2 times as long as wide; pilose; with dark brown hairs; convex at apex; auriculate; with 1 mm high auricles; glabrous on shoulders. Culm-sheath ligule 15 mm high; lacerate. Culm-sheath blade lanceolate; narrower than sheath; indistinctly demarcated from sheath; erect; 10–18 cm long; 40–45 mm wide. Leaf-sheath oral hairs scanty, or lacking. Ligule an eciliate membrane; 3–4(–8) mm long; bilobed. Collar with external ligule. Leaf-blade base cuneate; with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath; petiole 0.3 cm long. Leaf-blades lanceolate; 15–27 cm long; 37–60 mm wide; glaucous. Leaf-blade surface puberulous; hairy abaxially.
INFLORESCENCE Synflorescence bractiferous; clustered at the nodes; in stellate clusters; dense; with spathaceous subtending bracts; bracts 15 mm long; with axillary buds at base of spikelet; prophyllate below lateral spikelets; leafless between clusters.
Fertile spikelets sessile.
FERTILE SPIKELETS Spikelets comprising 2–4 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex. Spikelets lanceolate; laterally compressed; 12–15 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating above glumes but not between florets. Rhachilla internodes suppressed between florets.
GLUMES Glumes persistent; similar; shorter than spikelet.
FLORETS Fertile florets increasing in size upwards. Fertile lemma ovate; 9–12 mm long; chartaceous; without keel. Lemma margins ciliate. Lemma hairs white. Lemma apex acute. Palea 5–11 -veined; 2-keeled. Palea keels ciliate; adorned above. Apical sterile florets 1 in number; barren; lanceolate.
FLOWER Lodicules absent. Anthers 6; 6–8 mm long. Filaments united in a tube. Stigmas 1; pubescent. Ovary umbonate; pubescent on apex.
FRUIT Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; hairy at apex.
DISTRIBUTION Asia-tropical: Indo-China and Malesia.
NOTES Bambuseae. Holttum 1995.
Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.
