| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | cimicina |
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| Description: |
Robust, densely caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 150 cm tall, erect, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, sometimes with a sticky glandular patch encircling the culm beneath the panicle; basal leaf sheaths glabrous, chartaceous, terete, eglandular, persistent or tardily decaying into fibres; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 6–40 cm × 2–5 mm, linear, flat or involute, pilose on both surfaces, eglandular.Panicle 14–30 cm long, elliptic to oblong-ovate, loose and open, the axis flexuous, the spikelets evenly distributed on flexuous pedicels 3–8 mm long, the primary branches flexuous, not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, pubescent to shortly pilose in the axils, eglandular.Spikelets 4–6 × 3–4 mm, broadly ovate, plump, 6–10-flowered, the florets disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent or often becoming fragile in the upper part; glumes subequal, 2–2.3 mm long, reaching from just beyond the middle to 2/3 the way along the adjacent lemmas, dorsally rounded, ovate-elliptic to broadly ovate-elliptic, glabrous and glossy, obtuse at the apex; lemmas 2.5–3 mm long, dorsally rounded, broadly ovate-elliptic, subcoriaceous with inconspicuous lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at c. 45°, those in opposite rows imbricate and concealing the rhachilla, straw-coloured, sometimes tinged with purple, glabrous and glossy, obtuse at the apex; palea deciduous with the lemma, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, puberulous, sometimes shortly pilose below but scarcely ciliate; anthers 3, 1.7–2 mm long.Caryopsis 1–1.3 mm long, broadly oblong-elliptic to broadly obovate-elliptic, hollowed on the back. |
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| Habitat: | Kalahari Sand open woodlands and in sandy soil on river banks |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Botswana distribution: | N |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Pages 118 - 119. 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 144 - 145. (Includes a picture). Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 136. |
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