| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | sclerantha |
| Synonyms: | |
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| Frequency: | |
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| Description: |
Densely caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms rarely more than 30 cm tall, erect, slightly swollen at the base, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, eglandular; basal leaf sheaths woolly-tomentose below with off-white or yellowish hairs, chartaceous with somewhat indurated nerves, laterally compressed, eglandular, usually decaying into coarse yellow fibres; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 15–25 cm × 2–6 mm, linear, flat or involute, glabrous or faintly scaberulous, eglandular. Panicle less than 15 cm long, ovate, open, the with the spikelets spreading on the spreading branches, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils (but the axis and branches pubescent to puberulous), eglandular.Spikelets 2–9 × 1.5–2 mm, elliptic to oblong, laterally compressed, 6–20-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes subequal, 0.8–1.5 mm long, reaching to about the middle of the adjacent lemmas, keeled, lanceolate in profile, asperulous on the keel, otherwise glabrous, subacute at the apex; lemmas 1.6–2 mm long, keeled, ovate in profile, cartilaginous with indistinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at 45°, those in opposite rows imbricate and concealing the rhachilla, olive-green, glabrous, subacute at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.7–1 mm long.Caryopsis c. 0.6 mm long, elliptic. |
| Notes: | Culms rarely more than 30 cm tall; panicle ovate, less than 15 cm long, with the spikelets spreading on the spreading branches. |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | Montane grassland |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 1800 - 2000 m |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | N,E |
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| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Pages 128 - 129. (Includes a picture). 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 104. Poilecot, P. (2007). Eragrostis species of Zimbabwe Éditions Quae,Versailles, France Pages 166 - 167. (Includes a picture). |
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