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Stipa ichu

(Peruvian Feathergrass)

Common Names

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Common Names in English:

Peruvian Feathergrass

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 Stipa

Perennials , forming dense tussocks , old basal sheaths persistent . Leaf blades filiform to setaceous , convolute, abaxial surface smooth or scabrid , adaxial surface prominently ribbed . Inflorescence usually a contracted panicle, enclosed in uppermost leaf sheath or shortly exserted, spikelets few. Spikelets with one floret, bisexual ; glumes subequal , hyaline or membranous, much longer than floret, 3-5-veined, long acuminate; callus pungent , shortly bearded ; lemma narrowly lanceolate, terete , usually leathery, (3-) 5-veined, hairy , margins overlapping, apex entire; awn articulated at lemma apex and deciduous at maturity, scabrid to plumose , 1-2-geniculate, column tightly twisted, bristle straight, flexuous or curling; palea subequaling lemma, hyaline, enclosed within lemma. Lodicules 2 or 3, lanceolate. Stamens 3, anthers glabrous or shortly hairy at apex. Stigmas 2.

About 100 species: temperate and warm-temperate regions of Asia and Europe, in dry, open habitats ; 23 species (three endemic) in China.[2]

Physical Description

Habit: Graminoid

Habitat

Typically found at an altitude of 0 to 5,107 meters (0 to 16,755 feet).[3]

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Notes

An accepted name in the RHS Horticultural Database.

Place of publication : Révis. gramin. 1:60. 1829

Name verified on 10-Jul-2000 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 07-May-2007

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Stipa

ZipcodeZoo has pages for 909 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

S. academica · S. acrociliata · S. acuta · S. adoxa · S. africana · S. agrostis · S. airoides · S. akseirica · S. aktauensis · S. alaica · S. alexandri · S. aliciae · S. aliena · S. alpestris · S. alpina · S. alta · S. altaica · S. ambigua · S. ameghinoi · S. ameghinoi var. ameghinoi · S. ameghinoi var. digona · S. amethystina · S. amphicarpa · S. andina · S. androssowi · S. angulata · S. angustifolia · S. annua · S. anomala · S. antiatlantica · S. aperta · S. apertifolia · S. apertifolia var. nevadensis · S. aphanoneura · S. aphylla · S. appendiculata · S. aquarii · S. aquilana · S. arabica · S. arachnopus · S. araucana · S. araxensis · S. arcaensis · S. arcuata · S. arechavaletae · S. arechavaletai · S. arenaria · S. arenicola · S. argentea · S. argentina · S. argentinensis · S. argillosa · S. arguens · S. arida · S. aristata · S. aristella · S. aristiglumis · S. aristoides · S. armeniaca · S. arnowiae · S. arsenii · S. arundinacea · S. asperella · S. assyriaca · S. atacamensis · S. atlantica · S. atriseta · S. atropurpurea · S. attenuata · S. australis · S. austriaca · S. austroaltaica · S. austroitalica · S. avenacea · S. avenacea var. avenacea · S. avenacea var. bicolor · S. avenaceoides · S. avenacioides · S. avenoides · S. axilliflora · S. ayacuchensis · S. azutavica · S. badachschanica · S. baicalensis · S. balansae · S. barbata · S. barbata 'Federspiel' · S. barbata 'Silver Feather' (Feather Grass) · S. barbinodis · S. barchanica · S. barrancaensis · S. basi-plumosa · S. basiplumosa · S. bavarica · S. bavioensis · S. bavioensis var. minor · S. bella · S. bergeri · S. bertrandii · S. bhutanica

More Info

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Further Reading

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  • Chen Shouliang, Jin Yuexing, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Liu Liang, Wu Zhenlan, Lu Shenglian, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao, Wang Song, Sun Xiangzhong, Wang Huiqin, Yang Xilin, Wang Chaopin, Li Binggui & Wen Shaobin. 1990. Gramineae (Poaceae) (4). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(1):1401
  • Chen Shouliang, Zhuang Tide, Fang Wenzhe, Sheng Guoying, Jin Yuexing, Liu Liang, Sun Bisin, Hu Zhihao & Wang Song. 1997. Gramineae (Poaceae) (5). In: Chen Shouliang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 10(2): 1301
  • Liu Liang, Zhu Taiping, Chen Wenli, Wu Zhenlan & Lu Shenglian. Gramineae (Poaceae) (2). In: Liu Liang, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(2): 1405
  • Lu Sheng-lian, Sun Yong-hua, Liu Shang-wu, Yang Yong-chang, Wu Zhen-lan, Kuo Pen-chao, Yang Hsi-ling, Wang Chao-pin & Tsui Nai-ran. 1987. Gramineae (3). In: Kuo Pen-chao, ed., Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 9(3): 1329
  • Wang Zhengping, Ye Guanghan, Yang Yaling, Yu Zehua, Hu Chenhua, Geng Bojie, Feng Xuelin, Jia Liangzhi, Xia Nianhe, Li Dezhu, Zhang Weiping, Xue Jiru, Zhu Zhengde, Zhao Qiseng, Chen Shouliang, Sheng Guoying, Chen Shaoyun, Yao Changyu, Lu Jionglin, Sun Jiliang, Lin Wantao, Yi Tongpei, Zhao Huiru, Wen Taihui & Dai Qihui. 1996. Gramineae (Poaceae) (1).

    • Notes

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    Contributors

    Data Sources

    Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 22, 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. "Stipa". in Flora of China Vol. 22 Page 1, 188, 196, 204, 206, 210, 211. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org. [back]
    3. Mean = 2,716.420 meters (8,912.139 feet), Standard Deviation = 1,418.760 based on 146 observations. Altitude information for each observation from British Oceanographic Data Centre. [back]
    Last Revised: 2009-07-27