The grass genera of the world
The grass genera of the world | |
Sometimes referred to Sinarundinaria
Habit, vegetative morphology. Perennial; rhizomatous. The flowering culms leafy. Culms 100–400 cm high; woody and persistent; to 2 cm in diameter; branched above. Primary branches/mid-culm node 3. Culm sheaths persistent. Culm internodes hollow. Pluricaespitose. Rhizomes metamorph type II. Plants unarmed. Leaves not basally aggregated; auricles inconspicuous; with auricular setae (short brown bristles). Leaf blades lanceolate; broad, or narrow; 5–13 mm wide (4–18 cm long); pseudopetiolate; cross veined; disarticulating from the sheaths; rolled in bud. Ligule present. Contra-ligule present.
Reproductive organization. Plants bisexual, with bisexual spikelets; with hermaphrodite florets. Not viviparous.
Inflorescence. Inflorescence paniculate (with few spikelets per cluster); spatheate; a complex of ‘partial inflorescences’ and intervening foliar organs. Spikelet-bearing axes spikelike, or paniculate; persistent. Spikelets not secund; pedicellate.
Female-fertile spikelets. Spikelets compressed laterally; disarticulating above the glumes; disarticulating between the florets. Rachilla prolonged beyond the uppermost female-fertile floret; hairy (at the swollen tips of the joints); the rachilla extension with incomplete florets. Hairy callus absent.
Glumes two; shorter than the adjacent lemmas; pointed; awnless (acute to acuminate-tipped); carinate; similar. Spikelets with incomplete florets. The incomplete florets distal to the female-fertile florets. The distal incomplete florets merely underdeveloped. Spikelets without proximal incomplete florets.
Female-fertile florets 2–7. Lemmas similar in texture to the glumes; not becoming indurated; entire; pointed; mucronate to awned. Awns 1; median; apical; non-geniculate; much shorter than the body of the lemma. Lemmas carinate; 7 nerved, or 9 nerved. Palea present; relatively long; apically notched (acutely bifid); not indurated; several nerved (2 between the keels, 2 between each keel and the margin); 2-keeled. Lodicules present; 3; joined; membranous; ciliate; not toothed; heavily vascularized. Stamens 3. Anthers not penicillate; without an apically prolonged connective. Ovary glabrous; without a conspicuous apical appendage. Styles fused. Stigmas 2.
Fruit, embryo and seedling. Fruit longitudinally grooved; compressed dorsiventrally. Hilum long-linear. Embryo small.
Taxonomy. Bambusoideae; Bambusodae; Bambuseae.
Distribution, ecology, phytogeography. 1 species; China including Taiwan.
Paleotropical. Indomalesian. Indo-Chinese and Malesian.
Special comments. See Clayton and Renvoize (1986) and Soderstrom and Ellis (1987) for very different generic interpretations of species in this circle of affinity: there are no available generic descriptions adequate for the present purpose. Anatomical data wanting.
This description is offered for casual browsing only. We strongly advise against extracting comparative information from it. This is much more easily achieved using the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting specified attributes, summaries of attributes within groups of taxa, geographical distribution, classification, and species sampled for anatomy.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 1992 onwards. The grass genera of the world: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval; including synonyms, morphology, anatomy, physiology, phytochemistry, cytology, classification, pathogens, world and local distribution, and references. Version: 11th February 2012. http://delta-intkey.com’.