| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | gummiflua |
| Synonyms: | |
| Common names: | Gum grass (English) Kgomarela (Setswana) Rathathe (Setswana) Senyaborokwana (Setswana) |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | |
| Description: |
Caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 100(130) cm tall, erect, usually unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, with elongate sticky glands below the nodes; basal leaf sheaths glossy and glabrous (rarely thinly pilose), coriaceous, terete, with sticky glands below the collar, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 10–25(35) cm × 1.5–5 mm, narrowly linear, usually convolute, sometimes flat, glabrous or loosely and softly pilose, rather firm, eglandular.Panicle 10–35 cm long, narrowly oblong to oblong or lanceolate, rather dense, the spikelets densely clustered on short secondary branchlets and with short stout pedicels 0.2–1 mm long, the primary branches ascending, rarely somewhat spreading, not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, eglandular.Spikelets 3–5 × 1.5–2 mm, oblong to narrowly elliptic, lightly laterally compressed, 5–11-flowered, the florets disarticulating from the apex downwards, the rhachilla fragile; glumes unequal, lightly keeled, reaching to just beyond the middle of the adjacent lemmas, scaberulous on the keel, the inferior 0.7–1.5 mm long, lanceolate in profile, acute or subacute at the apex, the superior 1.3–1.6 mm long, broadly lanceolate in profile, acute or subacute at the apex; lemmas 1.4–1.7 mm long, lightly keeled, oblong to narrowly elliptic-oblong in profile, firmly membranous with distinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at less than 45°, those in opposite rows not overlapping, the rhachilla visible between them, dull green, brownish or tinged with purple, scaberulous on the keel above, obtuse to subacute at the apex; palea glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous towards the apex; anthers 3, 0.6–1.1 mm long.Caryopsis c. 0.6 mm long, narrowly elliptic. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | In wooded short grassland and mopane scrub on Kalahari Sand, in granite sandveld, and miombo woodland on sandy soils; also in overgrazed grassland |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe |
| Botswana distribution: | SE |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Chapano, C. & Mugarisanwa, N.H. (2003). Plants of the Matobo District National Herbarium and Botanic Garden, Zimbabwe Page 15. Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Page 91. 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 100 - 101. (Includes a picture). Roodt, V. (2015). Grasses & Grazers of Botswana and the surrounding savanna Struik Nature, South Africa Pages 112 - 113. (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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