Inflorescence a panicle, linear, usually rather narrow, contracted and dense; spikelets shortly pedicelled
Spikelet usually 5.5-8.0 mm long, laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes, linear, narrow, acuminate; glumes subequal, linear-lanceolate, longer than spikelet, firmly membranous, keeled upwards, scaberulous, awnless; lower glume 1-nerved; upper glume 1-3-nerved
Floret 1, bisexual, lemma less firm to similar in texture to glumes, hyaline, glabrous, 3-5-nerved, truncate-denticulate or lobed, awned from back well below apex, awn short, fine and straight, not extending beyond glumes; callus hairy, hairs white, as long as or longer than lemma; palea as long as lemma or shorter, 2-nerved, hyaline
Lodicules 2, hyaline, glabrous
Stamens 3
Ovary glabrous; styles plumose
Caryopsis narrowly ellipsoid
x = 7 (high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Calamagrostis Adans.
Adanson: 31, 530 (1763)
Stapf: 550 (1899)
Chippindall: 94 (1955)
Hubbard: 102 (1970)
Clayton & Renvoize: 135 (1986)
Gibbs Russell et al.: 76 (1990)
Watson & Dallwitz: 195 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 270, temperate regions of both hemispheres
Southern Africa: Species 1: Calamagrostis epigejos (L.) Roth var. capensis Stapf, North-West, Gauteng and Eastern Cape
References:
ADANSON, M. 1763. Familles des plantes 2. Vincent, Paris
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
HUBBARD, C.E. 1970. Flora of tropical East Africa. Gramineae (Part 1)
STAPF, O. 1898-1900. Gramineae. Flora capensis 7
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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