Compilation
Brachypodium diaphanum
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Name
Identification
Brachypodium diaphanum (Steud.) Cufod. [family POACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet, Isotype of Triticum flexum Nees [family POACEAE ] Verified by Not on sheet, Festuca diaphana Steud. [family POACEAE ] Verified by Not on sheet,
Related name
- Festuca diaphana
- Brachypodium diaphanum
- Triticum flexum
Flora
Entry for BRACHYPODIUM flexum Nees [family POACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, Part (Part 1), page 1, (1970) Author: W. D. Clayton
Names
BRACHYPODIUM flexum Nees [family POACEAE], Fl. Afr. Austr. 1: 456 (1841); Ann. list grasses Ug.: 8 (1947); R.K.G.: 14 (1958); Ann. list Nyasaland grasses: 32 (1958); I.G.U.: 20 (1960); G.T.: 15 (1965). Types: South Africa, Cape Province, several syntypes including Matjesfontein, Drège (K, isosyn.!)
BRACHYPODIUM flexum Hochst. var. abyssinicum [family POACEAE], in sched., Schimper Iter. Abyss. 2, No. 674 (1842); F.P.N.A. 3: 200 (1955); F.P.S. 3: 413 (1956). Type: Ethiopia, Simen, Mt. Silke, Schimper 674 (K, iso.!)
Triticum flexum (Nees) A. Rich. [family POACEAE], Tent. Fl. Abyss. 2: 441 (1851)
Festuca diaphana Steud. [family POACEAE], Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 316 (1854), nom. superfl. [ T. flexum in syn.]. Type: as B. flexum var. abyssinicum
Festuca flexa (Nees) Steud. [family POACEAE], Syn. Pl. Glum. 1: 316 (1854)
Brachypodium multiflorum Engl. [family POACEAE], in Abh. Preuss Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1894: 58 (1894), nom. nud., non Bercht. (1836)
Brachypodium pubescens Engl. [family POACEAE], P.O.A. A: 128 (1895), nom. nud.
Dinebra pubescens K. Schum. [family POACEAE], in P.O.A. C: 111 (1895). Type: Tanganyika, Kilimanjaro, Nokolu, Volkens 2026 (B, holo.!)
Brachypodium schumannianum Pilg. [family POACEAE], in N.B.G.B. 9: 1135 (1927). Type: as Dinebra pubescens
Brachypodium diaphanum Cuf. [family POACEAE], in B.J.B.B. 38, Suppl.: 1215 (1968). Type: as B. flexum var, abyssinicum
Information
Weak stemmed perennial, often forming dense mats. Culms 30–100 cm. high, usually scaberulous, slender, wiry, geniculately ascending, pubescent at the nodes. Leaf-blades 5–17 cm. long and 2–6 mm. wide, flat, thin, sparsely pilose above, scabrid beneath; sheaths nearly always scabrid, glabrous or sometimes sparsely pilose. Inflorescence 6–12 cm. long, usually bearing 5–8 spikelets. Spikelets 1.5–3 cm. long, narrowly lanceolate, mostly 6–12-flowered; glumes lanceolate, the lower (3–)4–8 mm. long, the upper 4–10 mm. long, acute or tapering to a fine point; lemmas narrowly lanceolate, (5–)7–11 mm. long, scaberulous, pubescent or weakly pilose, rarely glabrous, acute, tipped by an awn 4–8 mm. long. Fig. 24, p. 72.
Range
DISTR. U1–3; K2–5; T2–4, 6, 7 Sudan Republic and Ethiopia to South Africa and Madagascar
Altitude range
2000–3000 m.
Distribution
KENYA Mt. Elgon, E. slopes, 12 Jan. 1962, Bogdan 5389!KENYA Uasin Gishu District near Eldoret, Ol Dane Sapuk, 27 July 1951, Greenway 8545!KENYA Kiambu District Uplands Railway Station, 15 Oct. 1950, Bogdan 2831!TANGANYIKA Arusha District Mt. Meru, S. slopes, 31 Oct. 1965, Greenway & Vesey-FitzGerald 12257!TANGANYIKA Ufipa District Mbisi Forest, 21 Sept. 1959, Vesey-FitzGerald 1920! & 9 Nov. 1956, Richards 6951!UGANDA Kigezi District Mt. Mgahinga, 22 Oct. 1929, Snowden 1490! & 24 Aug. 1938, A. S. Thomas 2480!UGANDA Mt. Elgon, Liebenberg 1718!
Notes
B. flexum is very closely related to the European B. sylvaticum (Huds.) P. Beauv. with which it intergrades, and from which it can be distinguished by the scabrid or scaberulous (instead of smooth) culms and leaf-sheaths. It is even more closely related to B. mexicanum (Roem. & Schult.) Link, a species from Mexico, Colombia and Peru with scaberulous sheaths and culms, but with a more leathery lemma with blunt tip, and with a tendency for the spikelets to stand out at right angles from the axis. Within the species many forms can be recognized. A form with broad papery leaf-blades from the Cherangani Hills, Kenya, is worthy.