| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | membranacea |
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| Description: |
Caespitose annual; culms up to 110 cm tall, erect or ascending, usually branched, glabrous at the nodes, eglandular; leaf sheaths glabrous, with or without scattered subcircular glandular spots; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 4–40 cm × 1.5–5 mm, linear, flat or involute, glabrous, eglandular.Panicle 5–19 cm long, ovate, open, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 3.5–10 mm long, the lower primary branches in 1 or 2 whorls or subwhorls, the remainder not so, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous or thinly long-pilose in the axils, the pedicels with a glandular ring.Spikelets 3–15 × 1.9–4 mm, oblong or narrowly oblong, laterally compressed, 8–14-flowered, the florets disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes unequal, keeled, narrowly ovate in profile, glabrous, obtuse at the apex, the inferior 1.1–1.4 mm long, reaching to about the middle of the adjacent lemma, the superior 1.4–1.9 mm long, reaching to about 1/4 the way along the adjacent lemma; lemmas 2–2.6 mm long, keeled, broadly ovate in profile, firmly membranous with inconspicuous lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at c. 45°, those in opposite rows not imbricate, the rhachilla visible between them, greyish-green, tinged or suffused with purple except for the whitish narrowly hyaline margins, granular on the surface, obtuse at the apex; palea deciduous soon after the lemma, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, glabrous or scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.8–1.2 mm long.Caryopsis 1–1.2 mm long, elliptic. |
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| Habitat: | Sandy river banks and lake shores, and in pans in mopane woodland |
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| Worldwide distribution: | 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) Page 105. 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 118 - 119. (Includes a picture). Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 137. Timberlake, J.R. & Childes, S.L. (2004). Biodiversity of the Four Corners Area: Technical Reviews Volume Two (Chapter 5-15) Appendix 5-1: Plant Checklist Occasional Publications in Biodiversity 15 Page 189. |
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