New! - Search other data sources for Schizachyrium claudopus

Help - Wrong Description?

Kew Data Sources

Kew's Herbarium Catalogue
ePIC - Electronic Plant Information Centre

External Data Sources

Note - this takes you off of our website
Use your browser's back button to return to this page

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.

Schizachyrium claudopus

HABIT Perennial; caespitose. Butt sheaths woolly. Culms erect; 15–100 cm long. Ligule a ciliolate membrane. Leaf-blades 4–15 cm long; 1–3 mm wide. Leaf-blade apex acute.

INFLORESCENCE Synflorescence compound; scanty. Inflorescence composed of racemes; terminal and axillary; subtended by a spatheole. Spatheole linear.

Racemes 1; single; 6–10 cm long. Rhachis fragile at the nodes; semiterete; pubescent on margins. Rhachis internodes clavate. Rhachis internode tip crateriform; with scarious rim.

Spikelets appressed; in pairs. Fertile spikelets sessile; 1 in the cluster. Companion sterile spikelets pedicelled; 1 in the cluster. Pedicels linear; glabrous, or puberulous.

STERILE SPIKELETS Companion sterile spikelets well-developed; containing empty lemmas, or male; lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 4–5.5 mm long; shorter than fertile; deciduous with the fertile. Companion sterile spikelet glumes chartaceous; glabrous; 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 lanceolate; dorsally compressed; 6–8 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 elliptic; 1 length of spikelet; chartaceous, or coriaceous; 2-keeled; keeled laterally; wingless. Lower glume intercarinal veins distinct. Lower glume surface glabrous. Upper glume lanceolate; membranous; 1-keeled.

FLORETS Basal sterile florets barren; without significant palea. Lemma of lower sterile floret oblong; hyaline. Fertile lemma oblong; hyaline; without keel. Lemma apex lobed; 2 -fid; incised 0.75 of lemma length; awned; 1 -awned. Principal lemma awn from a sinus; flexuous, or geniculate; 0.5–15 mm long overall; without a column, or with twisted column. Column of lemma awn glabrous. Palea absent or minute.

DISTRIBUTION Africa: west-central tropical, east tropical, and southern tropical.

NOTES Andropogoneae. FTEA.

Please cite this publication as detailed in How to Cite Version: 3rd February 2016.