| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | habrantha |
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| Description: |
Caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 125 cm tall, erect, wiry, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes (but these mostly not exposed), eglandular; basal leaf sheaths thinly pubescent to shortly pilose below, firmly chartaceous to thinly coriaceous, subterete to strongly compressed, sometimes with scattered glandular pits, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas (5)10–40(60) cm × 1–2.5 mm, narrowly linear, involute, glabrous, eglandular.Panicle 25–37 cm long, narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, effuse with capillary branchlets and pedicels, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 1–2 mm long, the primary branches not in whorls (but sometimes loosely clustered), terminating in a fertile spikelet, pilose in the axils, eglandular.Spikelets 1.4–2 × 0.8–1 mm, ovate, lightly laterally compressed, 2–3(5)-flowered, the florets disarticulating from the apex downwards, the rhachilla fragile; glumes subequal, persistent, 0.8–1.2 mm long, reaching to or beyond the middle of the adjacent lemmas, scarcely keeled, lanceolate-oblong, scaberulous on the midnerve, obtuse to subacute at the apex; lemmas 0.9–1.3 mm long, dorsally rounded or lightly keeled, broadly elliptic, thinly membranous with obscure lateral nerves, widely divergent from the rhachilla, this visible between them, greyish-green to purplish, glabrous, subacute to rounded at the apex; palea glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, glabrous and smooth below, scaberulous above; anthers 3, 0.6–0.8 mm long.Caryopsis c. 0.6 mm long, oblong-elliptic to narrowly elliptic. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | Mixed dambo grasslands, wooded grassland, sandveld and mopane woodland, often in moist soil beside pans, dams and river banks; also in disturbed ground at roadsides |
| Altitude range: (metres) | 300 - 1530 m |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | N,W,C,E,S |
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| 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 99. 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 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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