Perennial, tufted, decumbent, stoloniferous, rooting at nodes, plants of wet areas at high altitudes
Leaf blade
expanded, blunt at apex; ligule an unfringed membrane
Inflorescence
a spreading, ovate panicle; spikelets pedicelled
Spikelet
slightly laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes; glumes unequal, shorter than spikelet, similar, firmly membranous with hyaline margins and tip, lightly keeled near base, rounded above, nerves falling short of obtuse or subacute tip, awnless
Floret
1, bisexual; lemma elliptic-oblong, thinly membranous, without keel, 3-5-nerved, glabrous, awnless; callus short, blunt, glabrous; palea as long as lemma
Lodicules
2- or 3-lobed
Stamens
3
Ovary
glabrous
x = 2 or 7 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Colpodium
Trin.
Trinius: 119 (1820)
Clayton: 49 (1970)
Clayton & Renvoize: 103 (1986)
Gibbs Russell et al.: 89 (1990)
Hedberg & Hedberg: 601 (1994)
Watson & Dallwitz: 260 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species ± 3-20, Middle East to Africa
Southern Africa
: Species 1:
Colpodium drakensbergensis
O.Hedberg & I.Hedberg, KwaZulu-Natal on Drakensberg and Lesotho in seepage areas
References:
CLAYTON, W.D. 1970.
Flora of tropical East Africa
.
Gramineae
(Part 1)
CLAYTON, W.D. & RENVOIZE S.A. 1986. Genera graminum. Grasses of the world.
Kew Bulletin
. Additional series 13
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
HEDBERG, O. & HEDBERG, I. 1994. The genus
Colpodium
(
Gramineae
) in Africa.
Nordic Journal of Botany
14
WATSON, L. & DALLWITZ, M.J. 1994.
The grass genera of the world
, revised edn. CAB International, Oxon
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