Guadua Paniculata

HABIT:

• Perennial; caespitose.
• Rhizomes short; pachymorph.
• Culms erect (arching); 500–1000 cm long; 10–25 mm diam.; woody; with root thorns from the nodes.
• Culm-internodes terete; thick-walled, or solid; yellow, or light green, or mid-green.
• Lateral branches dendroid.
• Branch complement two, or three; with 1 branch dominant; thinner than stem.
• Culm-sheaths deciduous but leaving a persistent girdle.
• Leaf-sheaths outer margin hairy.
• Leaf-sheath oral hairs setose; 5–7 mm long; dark.
• Ligule a ciliolate membrane.
• Collar with external ligule.
• Leaf-blade base with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath; petiole 0.05–0.1 cm long; petiole pubescent.
• Leaf-blades lanceolate; 8–14 cm long; 4–10 mm wide.
• Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

 

INFLORESCENCE:

• Synflorescence bractiferous; scanty, or clustered at the nodes; in untidy tufts (of 1–3 spikelets); lax; with glumaceous subtending bracts; prophyllate below lateral spikelets; leafy between clusters.

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FERTILE SPIKELETS:

• Spikelets comprising 8–12 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex.
• Spikelets linear; laterally compressed; 20–35 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret.

 

GLUMES:

• Glumes several; 1–2 empty glumes; persistent; shorter than spikelet.

 

FLORETS:

• Fertile lemma ovate; 5–7 mm long; coriaceous; without keel; 11 -veined.
• Lemma apex acute; mucronate.
• Palea 0.75–0.9 length of lemma.
• Palea keels winged; conspicuously winged; ciliate.
• Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

 

FLOWER:

• Lodicules 3; ovate; veined; ciliate.
• Anthers 6; 4 mm long; yellow.
• Stigmas 3.
• Ovary umbonate.

 

FRUIT:

• Caryopsis with adherent pericarp; obovoid; 4–4.5 mm long.
• Embryo 0.25 length of caryopsis.

 

DISTRIBUTION:

• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Colombia
• Costa Rica
• El Salvador
• Guatemala
• Honduras
• Mexico
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Paraguay
• Venezuela

Sources:
GrassBase - The Online World Grass Flora
INBAR (International Network for Bamboo and Rattan)