Leaf blade flat or rolled, hard and woody, pungent; ligule a fringe of hairs
Inflorescence a panicle with a stout central axis usually ending in spines and without spikelets, bearing short dorsal primary laterals, laterals secondarily branched and condensed into clusters appressed to central axis or forming simple spreading racemes; spikelets solitary, shortly pedicelled
Spikelet laterally compressed, disarticulating above glumes and tardily between florets; glumes ± equal, shorter than spikelet, similar, 3-nerved, awnless
Florets 3-20, bisexual; uppermost floret reduced; lemma similar in texture to glumes, entire, 3-nerved, rounded, usually glabrous or with short hairs, awnless; palea similar in texture to lemma
Lodicules 2, fleshy
Stamens 3
Ovary glabrous
Caryopsis narrowly oblong with free pericarp
x = 10
Nomenclature:
Cladoraphis Franch.
Franchet: 673 (1887)
De Winter: 132 (1955) included in Eragrostis Wolf
Phillips: 159 (1982)
Clayton & Renvoize: 217 (1986)
Gibbs Russell et al.: 86 (1990)
Watson & Dallwitz: 245 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Southern Africa: Species 2, Namibia and mainly western regions of Northern and Western Cape
References:
CLAYTON, W.D. & RENVOIZE S.A. 1986. Genera graminum. Grasses of the world. Kew Bulletin. Additional series 13
DE WINTER, B. 1955. Eragrostis. In D. Meredith, The grasses and pastures of South Africa. Central News Agency, Cape Town
FRANCHET, A.R. 1887. Cladoraphis. Bulletin mensuel de la Société Linnéenne de Paris 1
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, S.M. 1982. Numerical analysis of Eragrostideae. Kew Bulletin 37
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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