e-Key v3 - Styppeiochloa
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Poaceae - Arundinoideae - Arundineae - Styppeiochloa De Winter

Description :

  • Perennial, dense, sclerophyllous tufts, with hard, fibrous basal sheaths, forming thick, dense, fire-resistant mats
  • Leaf blade rolled, setaceous; ligule a fringe of hairs
  • Inflorescence a scanty, contracted panicle; spikelets appressed to branches; spikelets pedicelled
  • Spikelet laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes; glumes unequal, shorter than spikelet, lanceolate, apex 3-lobed or entire, with short awn-point; lower glume 1-nerved; upper glume 1-3-nerved
  • Florets 2-5, bisexual; uppermost floret sterile or reduced to a lemma; lemma lanceolate, similar in texture to glumes, 3-5(7)-nerved, hairy on margins near base, lateral nerves glabrous or minutely hairy, incised, 3-lobed, lobes with awns or mucros, central awn straight, shorter than body of lemma; callus short and hairy; palea narrowly lanceolate, subequalling lemma
  • Lodicules 2, small, truncate, glabrous
  • Stamens 3
  • Ovary elliptic-oblong, glabrous; style bases knob-like
  • Caryopsis fusiform

Nomenclature:

  • Styppeiochloa De Winter
    • De Winter: 134 (1966)
    • Phillips: 123 (1951) under Crinipes Hochst.
    • Chippindall: 123 (1955) under Crinipes Hochst.
    • Clayton & Renvoize: 172 (1986)
    • Gibbs Russell et al.: 330 (1990)
    • Watson & Dallwitz: 918 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species 2, mountainous areas of south and southeast tropical Africa
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Styppeiochloa gynoglossa (Gooss.) De Winter, Mpumalanga, Swaziland, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and into Eastern Cape

References:

  • CHIPPINDALL, L.K.A. 1955. A guide to the identification of grasses in South Africa. In D. Meredith, The grasses and pastures of South Africa . Central News Agency, Cape Town
  • CLAYTON, W.D. & RENVOIZE S.A. 1986. Genera graminum. Grasses of the world. Kew Bulletin . Additional series 13
  • DE WINTER, B. 1966. New and interesting records of African flowering plants. Gramineae . Bothalia 9
  • GIBBS RUSSELL, G.E., WATSON, L., KOEKEMOER, M., SMOOK, L., BARKER, N.P., ANDERSON, H.M. & DALLWITZ. M.J. 1990. Grasses of southern Africa. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 58
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • WATSON, L. & DALLWITZ, M.J. 1994. The grass genera of the world , revised edn. CAB International, Oxon