Aristida rhiniochloa
| Family: | Poaceae |
| Full name: | Aristida rhiniochloa Hochst. |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | ID not 100% certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Skurwesteeekgras |
| English common name(s): | Rough three-awn, Large-seeded bristlegrass |
| Synonym(s): | Aristida andoniensis Henrard Aristida rigidiseta Pilg. Aristida serrulata Chiov. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Annual, up to 65 cm high, caespitose, very scabrid and coarse. Culms erect or geniculately ascending, branched in the lower part and from the middle nodes, retrorsely scabrous, 3-many-noded; nodes minutely pubescent. Leaf-sheaths laxly embracing the culm, keeled, scabrous. Ligule long-ciliate; auricles long-barbate; collar minutely pubescent or glabrous. Leaf-laminae 10-20 x 0.2-0.4 cm, flat, glaucous, very scabrous on both surfaces. Panicle up to 20 cm long, exserted, effuse or contracted and much interrupted, with very scabrid axis and branches; branches 2-nate or solitary, with dark-coloured, shortly pubescent glandular patches in the axils. Spikelets coarse, reddish-green with a black spot at the base. Glumes broadly lanceolate, shortly pubescent on the back, scaberulous on the keel, 1-nerved, awned; the inferior up to 17 mm long, gradually tapering into a short awn up to 1.5 mm long, the superior up to 15 mm long, usually with 2 more or less acute lobes at the apex and a short awn 0.5-1 mm long from the sinus. Lemma usually c. 11 mm long, prominently nerved, with coarse antrorsely curved scabridules on the nerves, very rarely almost glabrous, keeled on the back, deeply grooved ventrally, with inrolled margins; callus 0.5-0.75 mm long, subobtuse, barbate; column absent; awns subequal, usually 18-30 mm long, rigid, erect or spreading, very scabrous, triquetrous, sometimes slightly winged at the base; articulation absent. (from JSTOR Global Plants website) A distinct sp. which can be easily recognized by its annual habit, retrorsely scabrid culms, scabrous leaves, a large panicle with scabrid axis and branches, broadly lanceolate glumes, of which the inferior is longer than the superior, a long lemma (c. 11 mm), with rows of coarse antrorse scabridules from the base to the apex; by the absence of a column and by rigid triquetrous awns, more or less winged at the base. According to de Winter, A. rhiniochloa seems to be related to A. hordeacea, because both have a similar leaf anatomy (expanded leaf-laminae with abaxially protruding midribs and a very similar type of vascular bundle units). In addition, they are annuals characterized by having scabrid ventrally grooved lemmas without a column at the apex. They can, however, be easily distinguished by the type of the inflorescence and by the presence or absence of the articulation at the apex of the lemma. In A. rhiniochloa the panicle is effuse or contracted and much interrupted and the lemma has no articulation, while in A. hordeacea the panicle is very dense, spiciform, and the lemma articulated. (from JSTOR Global Plants website) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 09 Apr 2010 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/640 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
