Leaf blade linear, setaceous; ligule a fringe of hairs
Inflorescence a narrow, often 1-sided, spike-like panicle, rarely a raceme; spikelets solitary, sessile or subsessile, 4 or 5 grouped on short lateral branches on central axis
Spikelet laterally compressed, falling with glumes; glumes unequal, very dissimilar, awnless; lower glume small or reduced to small linear scale; upper glume lanceolate, longer than spikelet, keeled, deeply concave, glabrous or hairy, scabrid on keel, 1-nerved
Floret 1, bisexual; lemma similar in texture to glumes, scabrid on keel, hairy, hairs in tufts or a line of hairs on either side of keel, 3-nerved, entire, awnless; palea ± as long as lemma, obtuse, 2-keeled
Lodicules 2, cuneate
Stamens 3
Ovary ellipsoid; styles plumose above
Nomenclature:
Catalepis Stapf & Stent
Stapf & Stent: 11 (1929)
Chippindall: 207 (1955)
Clayton & Renvoize: 252 (1986)
Gibbs Russell et al.: 77 (1990)
Watson & Dallwitz: 206 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Southern Africa: Species 1: Catalepis gracilis Stapf & Stent, Mpumalanga, E Free State, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, bordering Lesotho and 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
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
STAPF, O. & STENT, S.M. 1929. Catalepis. Kew Bulletin 1929
WATSON, L. & DALLWITZ, M.J. 1994. The grass genera of the world, revised edn. CAB International, Oxon
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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