| Home | > | List of families | > | Poaceae | > | Brachypodium | > | flexum |
| Synonyms: |
Brachypodium flexum var. abyssinicum Schimper Brachypodium multiflorum Engl. Brachypodium diaphanum Cufod. Brachypodium pubescens Engl. Brachypodium schumannianum Pilg. Dinebra K. Schum. Festuca diaphana Steud. Triticum flexum (Nees) A. Rich. |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
A very variable perennial. Culms up to 100 cm. tall, 5-many-noded, usually branched below, rarely simple, straggling, ascending from a geniculate base, or often decumbent and rooting from the lower nodes, terete, wiry, rather slender, smooth, glabrous or sometimes hairy below the nodes; nodes finely pubescent. Leaf-sheaths shorter than the internodes, striate, tight at first, later slipping off the culm, with a row of spreading hairs along the margins, otherwise glabrous or rarely scattered pilose. Ligule c. 1 mm. long, truncate. Leaf-laminae 5-15 x 0.3-0.8 cm., linear, long tapering to a fine flexible point, dark-green to glaucous, somewhat rigid to almost flaccid, usually scattered pilose, sometimes glabrous, smooth on the upper, scaberulous on the lower surface. Raceme 4-15 cm. long, erect or more often pendulous, bearing 3-9 spikelets; rhachis very slender, frequently curved, compressed, glabrous, scabrous mainly along the margins. Pedicels hardly more than 1.5 mm. long. Spikelets 1.25-4.5 cm. long, 7-many-flowered, usually overlapping but sometimes remote, horizontally spreading to obliquely ascending, glabrous or thinly pubescent. Glumes with the apex acute to acuminate, chartaceous, strongly nerved; inferior 3-6 mm. long, (3)4-5-nerved, narrowly triangular to lanceolate-subulate; superior 5-8.5 mm. long, 7-nerved, lanceolate to lanceolate-oblong. Lemmas 6-8 mm. long, 7-nerved, firmly membranous, lanceolate, tapering into the awn, inconspicuously scaberulous, rarely shortly pubescent; awn 3-7.5 mm. long, slender, straight. Paleas 7-8 mm. long, with rigid cilia along the keels. Anthers c. 3 mm. long, linear. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | In open forests, forest outskirts, along forest margins and in moist shady localities such as stream-sides and river banks, often rambling over bushes |
| Altitude range: | |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe |
| Malawi distribution: | N,C,S |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Burrows, J.E. & Willis, C.K. (eds) (2005). Plants of the Nyika Plateau Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 31 SABONET, Pretoria Page 341. (Includes a picture). Jackson, G. & Wiehe, P.O. (1958). An Annotated Check List of Nyasaland Grasses The Government Printer, Zomba, Nyasaland Page 32. Launert, E. (1971). Poaceae Flora Zambesiaca 10(1) Pages 63 - 65. (Includes a picture). Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 101. Strugnell, A.M. (2006). A Checklist of the Spermatophytes of Mount Mulanje, Malawi Scripta Botanica Belgica 34 National Botanic Garden of Belgium Page 146. |
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