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| Synonyms: |
Andropogon bracteatus Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd. Andropogon setifer Pilg. Cymbopogon giganteus sensu Stent & Rattray, non Chiov. Cymbopogon pilosovaginatus De Wild. Cymbopogon setifer (Pilg.) Pilg. Hyparrhenia contracta Robyns |
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| Description: |
Densely caespitose perennial; culms up to 250 cm high, erect, glabrous or sometimes villous for a short distance below the nodes. Leaf sheaths usually sparsely pilose, sometimes densely villous, rarely glabrous, the basal nearly always tomentose with pale brown hairs below; leaf laminas up to 60 cm × 4 mm, rigid, scabrid along the margins, usually pubescent below. False panicle 20–60 cm long, narrow, dense; spatheoles 2–3 cm long, narrowly lanceolate, usually appressed-hirsute but sometimes only along the margins; peduncles a little shorter than the spatheoles, copiously barbate all round above with stiff bulbous-based yellow hairs; racemes 0.5–1.5 cm long, 2–4-awned per pair, dark purple, laterally exserted and deflexed; raceme-bases slightly unequal, the superior 1.5–2 mm long, flattened or subterete, barbate with stiff yellow hairs, produced at the apex into a narrowly oblong, purple, irregularly bifid or lobed appendage 1–2.5 mm long, this glabrous, pubescent or even villous. Homogamous spikelets 4–7 mm long, a single pair at the base of the inferior raceme only, glabrous with scabrid margins, awnless. Sessile spikelets 4–6 mm long; callus c. 1 mm long, acute; inferior glume narrowly linear-oblong, coriaceous, glabrous or rarely hirsute, the midnerve raised between two fine longitudinal grooves; awn 1–2.5 cm long, the column shortly pubescent with white hairs. Pedicelled spikelets 4–6(7) mm long, glabrous, muticous or with a short mucro seldom over 1 mm long; callus scarcely developed; pedicel-tooth obtusely triangular, very obscure. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | bracteata: possessing bracts |
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| Worldwide distribution: | Tropical Africa, mainly in the west, and tropical America |
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| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Cope, T.A. (2002). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(4) Pages 127 - 128. Jackson, G. & Wiehe, P.O. (1958). An Annotated Check List of Nyasaland Grasses The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland Page 43. 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 105. |
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