| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Leersia | > | denudata |
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| Description: |
A densely caespitose perennial. Culms up to 70 cm. tall, 4-many-noded, erect or geniculately ascending, often rooting at the lower nodes, slender, terete, usually branched, striate, smooth, glabrous except for the nodes which are densely sericeous or villous. Leaf-sheaths striate, tight when young, later loose and slipping off the culm, slightly shorter than the internodes, auricled at the mouth, smooth, glabrous, or scattered with very short hairs. Ligule c. 1·5 mm. long, obliquely truncate, slightly retuse. Leaf-laminae 3-9(-14) x 0·15-0·4(-0·6) cm., narrowly linear, acute or tapering to a fine point, usually expanded or folded about the midrib, rarely involute, pale green, flaccid, densely arranged along the culm, glabrous, smooth on the upper surface. Inflorescence as described for L. hexandra, usually salmon-pink or purple in colour. Spikelets (3·2)3·6-4·4(-5·5) x (1·2)1·3-1·5 mm., similar in shape to L. hexandra. Lemma usually with an acute or subacute apical prolongation slightly longer than observed in L. hexandra, with the keels and margins shortly ciliolate (often only towards the apex) or more rarely scabrous. Palea acute or with a prolongation akin to that of the lemma, with the keel ciliolate (often only in the upper part). Sexual apparatus and caryopsis as in L. hexandra. |
| Notes: | |
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| Habitat: | Forming usually dense masses on fringes of ponds and lakes, or large glades in swamp grassland on black alluvial soil. Often appearing in pure stands covering 100 acres or more |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Botswana distribution: | |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Launert, E. (1971). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(1) Pages 28 - 29. 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 106. Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 140. |
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