Guadua Sarcocarpa

HABIT:

• Perennial; caespitose.
• Rhizomes short; pachymorph.
• Culms arching; 1000–2000 cm long; 80–100 mm diam.; woody; with root thorns from the nodes.
• Culm-internodes terete; thin-walled; 40–90 cm long; mid-green.
• Culm-nodes without obvious supra-nodal ridge; pubescent.
• Lateral branches dendroid; intravaginal.
• Bud complement 1.
• Branch complement one; thinner than stem.
• Culm-sheaths deciduous; puberulous; without auricles.
• Culm-sheath ligule 2–3 mm high; ciliolate.
• Culm-sheath blade triangular; erect; 3–9 cm long; pubescent; mucronate.
• Leaves 7–9 per branch.
• Leaf-sheaths reticulately veined; glabrous on surface, or puberulous.
• Leaf-sheath oral hairs setose; deciduous; 10 mm long.
• Ligule an eciliate membrane; 2–3 mm long; brown.
• Collar with external ligule.
• Leaf-blade base broadly rounded; with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath; petiole 0.6–0.8 cm long; petiole glabrous.
• Leaf-blades lanceolate; 13–24 cm long; 18–35 mm wide.
• Leaf-blade venation with 17–19 secondary veins; with distinct cross veins.
• Leaf-blade surface papillose; rough abaxially; glabrous, or pubescent.
• Leaf-blade apex acuminate.

 

INFLORESCENCE:

• Synflorescence bractiferous; scanty; lax; with glumaceous subtending bracts; bracts 6–10 mm long; with axillary buds at base of spikelet; prophyllate below lateral spikelets.

 

FERTILE SPIKELETS:

• Spikelets comprising 4–8 fertile florets; with a barren rhachilla extension, or with diminished florets at the apex.
• Spikelets lanceolate; laterally compressed; 10–17 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret.
• Rhachilla internodes 5–9 mm long; obscured by lemmas; pubescent.

 

GLUMES:

• Glumes two; persistent; similar; shorter than spikelet; shiny.
• Upper glume lanceolate; 6–16 mm long; coriaceous; without keels; 11–17 -veined.
• Upper glume lateral veins with cross-veins.
• Upper glume surface puberulous.
• Upper glume apex acute.

 

FLORETS:

• Fertile lemma lanceolate; 20–35 mm long; coriaceous; shiny; without keel; 25–30 -veined.
• Lemma surface puberulous; hairy above.
• Lemma apex acute; mucronate.
• Palea 25 mm long; 9–10 -veined.
• Palea keels winged; conspicuously winged.
• Palea surface pubescent; hairy on back.
• Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

 

FLOWER:

• Lodicules 3; 9–11 mm long; veined; ciliate.
• Anthers 6; 15–20 mm long.
• Stigmas 3.
• Ovary pubescent all over.

 

FRUIT:

• Caryopsis with fleshy pericarp; oblong, or ovoid; 15–60 mm long; hairy all over.
• Endosperm liquid.

 

DISTRIBUTION:

• Brazil
• Peru

 

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