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• Taxonomy
• Physical Description
• Distribution
• Similar Species
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Taxonomy

Physical Description

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]

Distribution

Similar Species

Members of the genus Yakirra:

There are approximately 9 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus: Y. australiensis · Y. australiensis var. australiensis · Y. australiensis var. intermedia · Y. foliolosa · Y. majuscula · Y. muelleri · Y. nulla · Y. pauciflora · Y. websteri

Members of the genus Polygala:

There are approximately 1,636 species, subspecies, varieties, forms, and cultivars in this genus. Here are just 100 of them: P. albida stanleyana · P. baikiei pobeguinii · P. calcarea somedana · P. cornuta fishiae · P. cornuta pollardii · P. erioptera petraea · P. guantanamana alternifolia · P. hospita bosniaca · P. kurdica bornmuelleri · P. mediterranea subpubescens · P. nicaeensis gerundensis · P. nicaeensis pannonica · P. pedemontana forojulensis · P. penaea guantanamana · P. penaea oblongata · P. penaea portoricensis · P. petitiana parviflora · P. sibirica bhutanica · P. sibirica elegans · P. sibirica heyneana · P. stenopetala casuarina · P. vulgaris gerundensis · P. hybrida · P. kotovii · P. pawlowskii · P. 'Chapman Field' · P. 'Dolomite' · P. 'Domino' · P. 'Rosengarten' · P. 1376 · P. abbreviata · P. abyssinica · P. abyssinica var. intercedens · P. acanthoclada (Desert Polygala) · P. acarnanica · P. acerosa · P. acicularis · P. acuminata · P. acutiappendiculata · P. acutifolia · P. adamsonii · P. adenophora · P. adenophylla · P. adenophylla var. parvifolia · P. adoensis · P. adpressa · P. adscendens · P. aestuans · P. aethiopica · P. affinis · P. afra · P. africana · P. agnipila · P. alata · P. alba (White Milkwort) · P. alba var. alcalina · P. alba var. bicolor · P. alba var. brachystachya · P. alba var. leptostachya · P. alba var. mexicana · P. alba var. schaffneri · P. alba var. tenuifolia · P. albicans · P. albicans var. caracaensis · P. albicans var. silvae · P. albicoma · P. albida · P. albida standleyana · P. albida standleyara · P. albowiana · P. alfredi · P. alfredii · P. alopecuroides · P. alopecurus · P. alpestre · P. alpestris · P. alpestris alpestris · P. alpestris croatica · P. alphonsii · P. alpicola · P. alpina · P. amambayense · P. amambayensis · P. amaniensis · P. amara · P. amara amara · P. amara brachyptera · P. amarella · P. amarella amblyptera · P. amarella austriaca · P. amarella var. salsa · P. amatymbica · P. ambigens · P. ambigua (Whorled Milkwort) · P. amblyptera · P. amboniensis · P. amera · P. americana · P. americana f. viridula · P. americana var. angustifolia

Bibliography

• 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).

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Notes

Contributors:

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Accessed March 16, 2008. http://www.gbif.org Mediated distribution data from 2 providers.

Data Sources:

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal March 16, 2008:

• Australian National Herbarium (CANB)
• National Herbarium of New South Wales: NSW herbarium collection

Identifiers:

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility Taxonkey: 15779850
• Globally Unique Identifier: urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:915599-1
• Zipcode Zoo Species Identifier: 3651170

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.