| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Eragrostis | > | sarmentosa |
| Synonyms: |
Eragrostis sp. (van Rensburg 2544) of Simon Poa sarmentosa Thunb. |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | |
| Description: |
Mat-forming perennial with rhizomes and often also with long stolons; culms up to 50 cm tall, erect or ascending, often decumbent and rooting at the nodes, unbranched, glabrous at the nodes, eglandular; basal leaf sheaths glabrous, chartaceous, terete (but those of non-flowering culms usually compressed), eglandular, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas 2.5–10 cm × 1.5–4.5 mm, linear to broadly linear, flat, glabrous, eglandular.Panicle 6–15 cm long, linear, the short distant primary branches appressed to the axis, the spikelets densely contracted about them on pedicels up to 1 mm long, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, eglandular.Spikelets 3–7 × 1.3–1.7 mm, narrowly oblong, laterally compressed, 10–14-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent below but often fragile above; glumes unequal, keeled, lanceolate in profile, glabrous, acute or subacute at the apex, the inferior 0.6–0.8 mm long, reaching to less than halfway along the adjacent lemma, the superior 1.1–1.4 mm long, reaching to just beyond the middle of the adjacent lemma; lemmas 1.3–1.5 mm long, keeled, narrowly ovate in profile, membranous with distinct lateral nerves, ± appressed to the rhachilla, those in opposite rows imbricate and concealing the rhachilla, greyish-green or purple-tinged, glabrous, subacute at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, scaberulous; anthers 3, 0.2–0.3 mm long.Caryopsis 0.5–0.6 mm long, elliptic to ovate. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | At low to medium altitudes in wet places, often in standing water, in dambos, on river banks, lake shores and beside freshwater coastal lagoons |
| Altitude range: (metres) | Up to 1500 m |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | N,W,C,E,S |
| 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 128. (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 162 - 163. (Includes a picture). Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 137. |
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