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Parapholis incurva

(Curved Sea Hard Grass)

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Curved Sea Hard Grass, Curved Sicklegrass, Sickle Grass

Description

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Family Poaceae

Annual or perennial herbs, or tall woody bamboos . Flowering stems (culms ) jointed , internodes hollow or solid; branches arising singly from nodes and subtended by a leaf sheath and 2-keeled prophyll, often fascicled in bamboos. Leaves arranged alternately in 2 ranks , differentiated into sheath, blade , and an adaxial erect appendage at sheath/blade junction (ligule) ; leaf sheath surrounding and supporting culm-internode, split to base or infrequently tubular with partially or completely fused margins , modified with reduced blade in bamboos (culm sheaths) ; leaf blades divergent, usually long, narrow and flat, but varying from inrolled and filiform to ovate , veins parallel, sometimes with cross-connecting veinlets (especially in bamboos) ; ligule membranous or a line of hairs . Inflorescence terminal or axillary , an open, contracted , or spikelike panicle, or composed of lax to spikelike racemes arranged along an elongate central axis, or digitate, paired , or occasionally solitary; axillary inflorescences often many, subtended by spatheoles (specialized bladeless leaf sheaths) and gathered into a leafy compound panicle; spikelets often aggregated into complex clusters in bamboos. Spikelets composed of distichous bracts arranged along a slender axis (rachilla) ; typically 2 lowest bracts (glumes ) empty, subtending 1 to many florets ; glumes often poorly differentiated from accompanying bracts in bamboos. Florets composed of 2 opposing bracts enclosing a single small flower, outer bract (lemma) clasping the more delicate, usually 2-keeled inner bract (palea) ; base of floret often with thickened prolongation articulated with rachilla (callus) ; lemma often with apical or dorsal bristle (awn ), glumes also sometimes awned . Flowers bisexual or unisexual ; lodicules (small scales representing perianth) 2, rarely 3 or absent, 3 to many in bamboos, hyaline or fleshy ; stamens 3 rarely 1, 2, 6, or more in some bamboos, hypogynous, filaments capillary , anthers versatile; ovary 1-celled, styles (1 or) 2(rarely 3), free or united at base, topped by feathery stigmas, exserted from sides or apex of floret. Fruit normally a dry indehiscent caryopsis with thin pericarp firmly adherent to seed, pericarp rarely free, fleshy in some bamboos; embryo small or large; hilum punctate to linear .

About 700 genera and 11,000 species: widely distributed in all regions of the world.[1]

Genus Parapholis

Annuals . Leaf blades narrowly linear to linear-lanceolate. Inflorescence a slender cylindrical raceme , spikelets sessile in 2 alternating rows sunk in hollows of the rachis; rachis fragile, fracturing horizontally beneath each spikelet at maturity. Spikelets with 1 floret; glumes leathery, placed side by side in front of spikelet and appressed to rachis, closing rachis cavity and covering floret, asymmetrical, appearing like halves of a single split glume, strongly 3-7-veined, outer margin inflexed , apex acute; lemma hyaline , 3-veined, its side toward the rachis, awnless; palea slightly shorter than lemma. Ovary with lobed apical appendage ; styles nearly absent. Caryopsis narrowly oblong ; hilum round to narrowly oblong. Endosperm liquid.

Six species: C and SW Asia, Mediterranean region, northward along Atlantic coast of Europe to the Baltic Sea; introduced to most other temperate regions ; one species (introduced) in China.[2]

Physical Description

Species Parapholis incurva

Culms tufted , decumbent at base , 10-25 cm tall, much branched in lower part. Leaf sheaths rounded , smooth , glabrous ; leaf blades linear , flat or folded, 2.5-8 cm × 1-2 mm, glabrous, abaxial surface smooth, adaxial surface and margins scabrid , finely acute; ligule 0.5-1 mm, truncate . Raceme slenderly cylindrical, 4-10 cm, falcately curved ; rachis smooth, joints shorter than spikelets . Spikelets 6-8 mm; glumes as long as spikelet, narrowly oblong-subulate, 3-5-veined, glabrous, acute; lemma lanceolate, 4-5 mm, 3-veined, the laterals very short, glabrous. Anthers 0.5-1 mm. Caryopsis tawny , 3-3.5 mm. Fl. Apr-Jun. 2n = 38. [source]

Parapholis and a few other genera of mostly annual grasses adapted to saline conditions are sometimes placed in the tribe Hainardi-eae. They are distinguished from typical Poeae by the distinctive rat-tail inflorescence and glumes placed side-by-side. However, they are clearly related to other less specialized annual members of Poeae, and recent molecular evidence places them within this tribe. [source]

Habitat

Seashores, coastal salt marshes[3].

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Aegilops incurva Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 1051. 1753
  2. Lepid-urus incurvus (Linnaeus) Janchen
  3. Lepturus incurvus (Linnaeus) Druce
  4. Pholiurus incurvus (L.) Schinz & Thellung
  5. Pholiurus incurvus (Linnaeus) Schinz & Thellung
  6. Rottboellia incurva (Linnaeus) Roemer & Schultes.

Notes

Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication : Blumea suppl. 3:14. 1946

Name verified on 01-Oct-1999 by ARS Systematic Botanists.

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Parapholis

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 8 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus:

P. filiformis · P. filiformos · P. gracilis · P. incurva (Curved Sea Hard Grass) · P. incurvus · P. marginata · P. pycnantha · P. strigosa (Strigose Sicklegrass)

More Info

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Further Reading

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal December 12, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

  1. Shou-liang Chen, De-Zhu Li, Guanghua Zhu, Zhenlan Wu, Sheng-lian Lu, Liang Liu, Zheng-ping Wang, Bi-xing Sun, Zheng-de Zhu, Nianhe Xia, Liang-zhi Jia, Zhenhua Guo, Wenli Chen, Xiang Chen, Yang Guangyao, Sylvia M. Phillips, Chris Stapleton, Robert J. Soreng, Susan G. Aiken, Nikolai N. Tzvelev, Paul M. Peterson, Stephen A. Renvoize, Marina V. Olonova & Klaus Ammann "Poaceae". in Flora of China Vol. 22. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  2. Zhen-lan Wu & Sylvia M. Phillips "Parapholis". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 6, 225, 315. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
  3. "Parapholis incurva". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 315. Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
Last Revised: 7/1/2009