Densely caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 95 cm tall, erect, unbranched, eglandular, the nodes concealed within the leaf sheaths; basal leaf sheaths densely silky-villous, chartaceous, terete, eglandular, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas up to 20 cm × 3.5 mm, linear, flat or loosely involute, glabrous or thinly pilose, eglandular. Panicle 12–15 cm long, ovate, very loose and open, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 2–5 mm long, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, eglandular. Spikelets 7–8 × 4–4.5 mm, elliptic-ovate, laterally compressed, 11–13-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes unequal, reaching to the middle of the adjacent lemmas, keeled, narrowly lanceolate in profile, glabrous, acute at the apex, the inferior c. 1.7 mm long, the superior c. 2 mm long; lemmas 2.7–3 mm long, keeled, narrowly ovate-elliptic in profile, firmly membranous with indistinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at 45°, those in opposite rows not overlapping, the rhachilla visible between them, greyish-green, glabrous, subacute at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, pubescent; anthers (?)3, c. 1.2 mm long. Caryopsis not yet seen. Densely caespitose perennial without rhizomes or stolons; culms up to 95 cm tall, erect, unbranched, eglandular, the nodes concealed within the leaf sheaths; basal leaf sheaths densely silky-villous, chartaceous, terete, eglandular, persistent; ligule a line of hairs; leaf laminas up to 20 cm × 3.5 mm, linear, flat or loosely involute, glabrous or thinly pilose, eglandular. Panicle 12–15 cm long, ovate, very loose and open, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 2–5 mm long, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, eglandular. Spikelets 7–8 × 4–4.5 mm, elliptic-ovate, laterally compressed, 11–13-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes unequal, reaching to the middle of the adjacent lemmas, keeled, narrowly lanceolate in profile, glabrous, acute at the apex, the inferior c. 1.7 mm long, the superior c. 2 mm long; lemmas 2.7–3 mm long, keeled, narrowly ovate-elliptic in profile, firmly membranous with indistinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at 45°, those in opposite rows not overlapping, the rhachilla visible between them, greyish-green, glabrous, subacute at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, pubescent; anthers (?)3, c. 1.2 mm long. Caryopsis not yet seen. Panicle 12–15 cm long, ovate, very loose and open, the spikelets evenly distributed on pedicels 2–5 mm long, the primary branches not in whorls, terminating in a fertile spikelet, glabrous in the axils, eglandular. Spikelets 7–8 × 4–4.5 mm, elliptic-ovate, laterally compressed, 11–13-flowered, the lemmas disarticulating from below upwards, the rhachilla persistent; glumes unequal, reaching to the middle of the adjacent lemmas, keeled, narrowly lanceolate in profile, glabrous, acute at the apex, the inferior c. 1.7 mm long, the superior c. 2 mm long; lemmas 2.7–3 mm long, keeled, narrowly ovate-elliptic in profile, firmly membranous with indistinct lateral nerves, diverging from the rhachilla at 45°, those in opposite rows not overlapping, the rhachilla visible between them, greyish-green, glabrous, subacute at the apex; palea persistent, glabrous on the flanks, the keels slender, wingless, pubescent; anthers (?)3, c. 1.2 mm long. Caryopsis not yet seen.Morphology
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Flora Zambesiaca - descriptions
Morphology
