Guadua Superba

HABIT:

• Perennial; caespitose.
• Rhizomes short; pachymorph.
• Culms erect, or arching; 800–2000 cm long; 100–150 mm diam.; woody; with root thorns from the nodes.
• Culm-internodes semiterete; thick-walled; antrorsely scabrous.
• Lateral branches dendroid.
• Bud complement 1.
• Culm-sheaths 3 times as long as wide; glabrous.
• Culm-sheath ligule 1.5–2.5 mm high; ciliolate.
• Culm-sheath blade triangular; demarcated but persistent; erect; 10–13 cm long; hispid.
• Leaves 7–13 per branch.
• Leaf-sheaths glabrous on surface; outer margin hairy.
• Leaf-sheath oral hairs scanty; 4–7 mm long.
• Ligule an eciliate membrane; 1 mm long.
• Collar with external ligule.
• Leaf-blade base cuneate, or broadly rounded; with a brief petiole-like connection to sheath; petiole 0.2–0.8 cm long; petiole pilose.
• Leaf-blades linear; 16–26 cm long; 13–18 mm wide; glaucous.
• Leaf-blade venation without cross veins.
• Leaf-blade surface glabrous, or puberulous; hairy abaxially.
• Leaf-blade apex attenuate.

 

INFLORESCENCE:

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

 

FERTILE SPIKELETS:

• Spikelets comprising 3–4 fertile florets; with diminished florets at the apex.
• Spikelets oblong; laterally compressed; acuminate; 15–25 mm long; breaking up at maturity; disarticulating below each fertile floret.
• Rhachilla internodes obscured by lemmas; pubescent.

 

FLORETS:

• Fertile lemma ovate; 13–15 mm long; coriaceous; without keel; 15–17 -veined.
• Lemma lateral veins prominent.
• Lemma surface pubescent.
• Lemma margins ciliate.
• Lemma apex acute.
• Palea 9–10 mm long.
• Palea keels winged; conspicuously winged.
• Apical sterile florets resembling fertile though underdeveloped.

 

FLOWER:

• Lodicules 3; veined.
• Anthers 6.
• Stigmas 3.

 

FRUIT:

• Caryopsis with adherent pericarp.

 

DISTRIBUTION:

• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Peru

 

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