| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | leptotricha |
| Synonyms: | |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | |
| Description: |
Caespitose short-lived perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 60 cm tall, erect, wiry, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes (but these mostly not exposed), eglandular; basal leaf sheaths shortly pilose below, firmly chartaceous, subterete to lightly compressed, sometimes with scattered glandular pits, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 6–30 cm × 1–2.5 mm, narrowly linear, involute, glabrous, eglandular.Panicle 16–25 cm long, narrowly oblong to narrowly elliptic, effuse with capillary branchlets and pedicels, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 1–2.5 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, 3–4-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 0.9–1.2 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, thinly pilose with slender hairs on the flanks between the margins and the lateral nerves, 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 not yet seen. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | Hot dry country, in open short grassland, on sandy soils usually overlying an impervious clay layer |
| Altitude range: (metres) | |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Known only from the Flora Zambesiaca area, Botswana, Zimbabwe |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | W |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (1999). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(2) Pages 98 - 100. (Includes a picture). 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 114 - 115. (Includes a picture). Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 137. |
| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | leptotricha |