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| Synonyms: |
Andropogon welwitschii (Rendle) K. Schum. Cymbopogon welwitschii Rendle Hyparrhenia gracilescens Stapf |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | |
| Description: |
Annual; culms up to 300 cm high, glabrous or with a ring of white or brown hairs at each node, often supported by stilt roots. Leaf sheaths glabrous; leaf laminas up to 60 cm × 12 mm, glabrous, narrowed at the base. False panicle 30–60 cm long, lax, leafy; spatheoles 3–5 cm long, narrowly lanceolate, glabrous; peduncles a little shorter than the spatheoles, barbate all round above with white or yellow bulbous-based hairs, ± straight; racemes 1.2–1.7 cm long, 3-awned per pair, laterally exserted, deflexed; raceme-bases subequal, the superior c. 1 mm long, flattened, stiffly setose with pale rufous bulbous-based bristles, the apex produced into an oblong, reddish, irregularly lobed appendage 0.5–1 mm long. Homogamous spikelets 7–10 mm long, a single pair at the base of the inferior raceme only, glabrous, awnless. Sessile spikelet 5–7 mm long; callus c. 1.5 mm long, pungent; inferior glume linear-oblong, greyish, glabrescent to sparsely pubescent with white hairs; awn 4–7 cm long, the column pubescent with fulvous hairs 0.2–0.6 mm long. Pedicelled spikelets 6–8 mm long, linear-lanceolate, glabrous, terminating in a slender awn 2–11(14) mm long; callus scarcely developed; pedicel-tooth short. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | welwitschii: Named after the Austrian botanist, Friedrich Martin Welwitsch (1806-1872) |
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| Worldwide distribution: | West tropical Africa from Guinea to Angola, eastwards to Sudan and the Comoro Islands, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
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| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 350. Cope, T.A. (2002). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(4) Page 127. Jackson, G. & Wiehe, P.O. (1958). An Annotated Check List of Nyasaland Grasses The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland Page 44. As Hyparrhenia gracilescens 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. Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 139. Strugnell, A.M. (2006). A Checklist of the Spermatophytes of Mount Mulanje, Malawi Scripta Botanica Belgica 34 National Botanic Garden of Belgium Page 149. |
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