Fuirena umbellata

Diagnostic 2

"Erect, rhizomatous perennial herbs, 40-97 cm tall; rhizome short, thick, horizontal; culms sharply 4- or 5-angular, several noded, glabrous except below inflorescence. Leaves cauline, 7-18 x 0.5-1.2 cm, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, base rounded, apex acute, 5-nerved, glabrous or ciliate at base; sheaths to 6 cm long; ligules membranous. Inflorescence paniculiform, with 3 to 10 glomerulous clusters of sessile spikelets; each glomerules bearing 4 to 10 spikelets; peduncles white-villose. Spikelets 6-10 x 2-3 mm, ovoid, acute, brownish-green at maturity, wholly pubescent; bracts 2-3, lowest one leaf-like. Glumes spiral, 2-2.5 x 1-1.5 mm, obovate, apex rounded, short-hairy, the midvein ending in a short, recurved, often pilose, 0.5-1 mm long awn. Hypogynous bristles absent. Hypogynous scales 3, c. 1.5 x 0.5 mm, obovate, subsessile with a very short claw at base, apex, truncate, 3-nerved, mid-nerve projecting into a short curled mucro, minutely ciliate at apex. Stamens 3; anthers c. 0.5 mm long. Style c. 1 mm long; stigmas 3. Nuts c. 1 x 0.5 mm, elliptic to obovate; triquetrous, apex beak-like."

Sources and Credits

  1. (c) Reinaldo Aguilar, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/plantaspinunsulaosa/8246187892/
  2. (c) India Biodiversity Portal, some rights reserved (CC BY), http://eol.org/data_objects/26335556

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