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| Description: |
Caespitose annual; culms up to 40 cm tall, erect or ascending, branched or unbranched; leaf sheaths chartaceous, glabrous or with tubercle-based hairs near the margins above, lightly laterally compressed; leaf laminas 3–8 cm × 3–6 mm, flat, glabrous or scattered tuberculate-pilose on the surfaces, pectinate-ciliate below with tubercle-based setae but without raised glands interspersed among them, acute or subacute at the apex.Panicle 3–6 cm long, ovate; branches in a succession of whorls, smooth, with scattered elongated viscid glandular patches, the spikelets 2–3 on secondary branchlets or directly on the primary branches above, branchlets and spikelets absent from the lowermost 1/5–1/4 of the primary branches.Spikelets 1.2–1.6 mm long, greyish-green; inferior glume up to 1/4 the length of the spikelet but usually much less and often quite suppressed, oblong, nerveless, glabrous, obtuse at the apex; superior glume as long as the spikelet, ovate-elliptic, 1-nerved, conspicuously hispidulous (use ×10 handlens), acute at the apex; lemma as long as the spikelet or almost so, ovate-elliptic; anthers 3, 0.35–0.65 mm long.Grain elliptic or obovate, 0.7–0.8 mm long, terete or lightly laterally compressed. |
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| Habitat: | Usually on termitaria in dambos, and as a weed of cultivated lands |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 970 - 1220 m |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| FZ divisions: | N,W |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Page 173. 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 110. |