| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | caniflora |
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| Description: |
Densely caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 45 cm tall, erect or ascending, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, eglandular; basal leaf sheaths glabrous below, chartaceous, terete, eglandular, persistent (or sometimes decaying into fibres); ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 2–16 cm × 1.2–3(4.5) mm, filiform or linear and flat (the latter usually the shorter), loosely pilose, eglandular.Panicle 3–8 cm long, broadly ovate, open, the spikelets evenly distributed on filiform pedicels 2.5–9 mm long, these with a glandular ring just below the spikelet, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils.Spikelets 2–5 × 1.8–3 mm, ovate-oblong to broadly ovate, not compressed, 4–11-flowered, the florets disarticulating from the apex downwards, the rhachilla fragile; glumes subequal, 1.3–2.5 mm long, reaching to beyond the middle of the adjacent lemmas, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, pilose, acute to acuminate at the apex; lemmas 2–2.4 mm long, dorsally rounded, ovate-elliptic, thinly membranous with distinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at c. 45°, those in opposite rows not imbricate, the rhachilla visible between them, dark brownish-red, pilose with tubercle-based hairs, obtuse to subacute and mucronate at the apex; palea pilose on the back and flanks with stiff hairs c. 0.5 mm long, glabrous on the slender, wingless keels; anthers 3, c. 0.7 mm long.Caryopsis c. 0.7 mm long, elliptic. |
| Notes: | |
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| Habitat: | Dambo grasslands, seasonally flooded stream banks and lake margins, and in montane grassland |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1610 - 2430 m |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Tanzania and southwards to Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | E |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 345. Chapano, C. & Mamuto, M. (2003). Plants of the Chimanimani District National Herbarium and Botanic Garden, Zimbabwe Page 24. Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Pages 86 - 87. (Includes a picture). Jackson, G. & Wiehe, P.O. (1958). An Annotated Check List of Nyasaland Grasses The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland Page 39. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 103. Poilecot, P. (2007). Eragrostis species of Zimbabwe Éditions Quae,Versailles, France Pages 96 - 97. (Includes a picture). Strugnell, A.M. (2006). A Checklist of the Spermatophytes of Mount Mulanje, Malawi Scripta Botanica Belgica 34 National Botanic Garden of Belgium Page 147. Wursten, B., Timberlake, J. & Darbyshire, I. (2017). The Chimanimani Mountains: an updated checklist. Kirkia 19(1) Page 85. |
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